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THE 

REFERENCE 

SHELF 

REPRINTS OF SELECTED ARTICLES 
BRIEFS, BIBLIOGRAPHIES, DEBATES 
STUDY OUTLINES OF TIMELY TOPICS 


Volume 1 


Number 10 


Ku Klux Klan 


JULIA E. JOHNSEN, Compiler 


ip 



THE H.W WILSON COMPANY / « 

958UnivcrsliyAye. Newark ~ 




























































The Reference Shelf 

is published to make available when needed good debates, 
collections of articles, briefs, bibliographies and study outlines, 
on timely subjects for public discussion. Each number is de¬ 
voted to a single subject. To make the material available at 
the time of greatest need, publication is irregular. Each vol¬ 
ume will contain ten or more separate issues, about 800 pages 
in all, and will cover about a year in time. 

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Price for single copies, averaging 80 pages each, 75c, may vary 
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one-third off, if ordered direct. 

Volume I. Contents 

No. 1 . Cancellation of Allied Debt (Debate, briefs, refer¬ 
ences and reprints) 75c 

No. 2. China and Japan (Study outline) 50c 
No. 3. St. Lawrence River Ship Canal (Briefs, references, re¬ 
prints) 75 c 

No. 4. Kansas Court of Industrial Relations (Briefs, ref¬ 
erences, reprints) 75 c 

No. 5. Towner-Sterling Bill (U. S. Dept, of Education) 
(Briefs, references, reprints) 75 c 

No. 6. Cabinet Form of Government (Briefs, references, re¬ 
prints) 75 c 

No. 7. Enforcement of the Decisions of the Railway 
Labor Board (Briefs, references, reprints) 75c 
No. 8. Ship Subsidies (Briefs, references, reprints) 75c 
No. 9. Questions of the Hour. New ed. (Study outline) 50c 
No. 10. Ku Klux Klan 

No. 11 . Repeal of the Prohibition Amendment: Debate. 
Col. Ransom H. Gillett vs. Dr. John Haynes Holmes. 

Volume II: In Preparation 

Moving Pictures—Censorship (Briefs, references, reprints) 

Future issues to be announced 


Volume 


.W^V 


May, 1923 


Number 10 


The Reference Shelf 


Briefs, Bibliographies, Debates, Reprints 
of Selected Articles and Study Outlines 
on Timely Topics 

Published by THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 

958-964 University Avenue c Hew York City 


KU KLUX KLAN 

JULIA E. JOHNSEN, Compiler 

INTRODUCTION 

The Ku Klux Klan is an anomaly in American life. 
The extreme secrecy with which it is shrouded and the 
apparent spread of membership into the thousands in 
practically every state of the Union, with attempted en¬ 
trance also into Canada and England, make it both dif¬ 
ficult and important to bring into the open reliable facts 
and a clear comprehension of the inner nature of this 
extraneous social organism. 

The present Ku Klux Klan embraces the organization 
founded in 1915 at Atlanta, Georgia, by Colonel William 
Joseph_Srmm55ZT r&fessin fe to commemorate the historic 
*Ku Klux Klan of reconstruction days. According to 
Colonel Simmons before the Rules Committee in Con¬ 
gress, its membership in 1921 was approximately ninety 
to nine t y-five thousan d. Its growth is augmented by a 
Tnghly organized system of propaganda. Save for a few 
of the executive and organizing officials, its members are 
generally unknown. Among its late manifestations is the 
formation of an auxiliary woman’s division known as 













2 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


the “Kamelia,” and a movement styled the “Great Ameri¬ 
can Fraternity” has also been ascribed to its activities. 

The material on the Ku Klux Klan is frankly one¬ 
sided. The press is, as a rule, hostile or at best neutral. 
For its defense one must go to such publications and 
statements as emar om within its own organism. A 
few organizatioi are actively combatting it. Foremost 
among these are the American Unity League, with of¬ 
fices at 127 North Dearborn Street, Chicago, which league 
also publishes a weekly paper “Tolerance,” and the Amer¬ 
ican Civil Liberties Union, 100 Fifth Avenue, New York. 
The Catholic, negro, and Jewish organizations also op¬ 
pose it. 

The present pamphlet has been included in the Refer¬ 
ence Shelf in response to a demand for reference ma¬ 
terial on this subject. The attempt has been made by the 
compiler to avoid bias and let the facts speak for them¬ 
selves to the discriminating, as is in keeping with the es¬ 
tablished practice of the debaters’ series of publications. 
To this end representative material is included setting 
forth both the aims and defense of the Klan and the 
arguments of the opposition. 


April 2, 1923. 


Julia E. Johnsen. 


BRIEF 


Resolved: That the Ku Klux Klan should he condemned 
by all right-thinking Americans. / 

Affirmative 

I. The Ku Klux Klan should be condemned because 
its principles are destructive and wrong. 

A. It is founded on the principle of invisible gov¬ 
ernment. 

1. Its membership is masked and unknown. 

2. It tries to control outside affairs. 

a. Legitimate secret societies do not ar¬ 
rogate to themselves control over ex¬ 
ternal affairs. 

3. Membership is concealed under oath. 

B. It places itself above law. 

1. The Klan itself commits crime in the name 
of righteousness. 

a. Murder, kidnapping, violence, flog¬ 
ging, etc. 

b. It disregards lawfully elected officers 
and legal machinery. 

2. Klan loyalty is made more binding than 
civic loyalty. 

a. Members will not testify against one 
another. 

3. It is an arbitrary tribunal. 

C. It is irresponsible. 

1. There is no effective control of locals, 
a. Recalcitrant “dens” can only have 
their charters revoked. 


4 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


(1) This is done only under pres¬ 
sure of public opinion. 

(2) It does not prevent the mem¬ 
bers continuing activities, using 
regalia, etc. 

2. In case of crime there is no punishment 
of offenders. 

a. The Klan does not bring members to 
justice. 

(1) Even when charged to pseudo 
members, no justice is meted 
out. 

b. The community cannot locate the re¬ 
sponsibility for crime. 

D. It ignores fundamental rights of others. 

1. Constitutional rights. 

a. The right to protection by law. 

b. To trial by jury. 

c. To religious freedom. 

2. The inherent personal right of every hu¬ 
man being to liberty of thought, conscience 
and action, providing the rights of others 
are not interfered with. 

' 3. The Klan is used for personal hatreds and 
prejudices. 

II. Its activities are a menace. 

A. It is disruptive. 

1. It spreads religious prejudice. 

a. By excluding non-protestant religions 
from membership. 

b. By active propaganda against them of 
bigotry, intolerance, persecution. 

2. It intensifies class feeling. 

a. It discriminates against all persons of 
foreign birth and negroes. 

3. It plays upon the particular prejudices of 
each locality. 


ICU ICLUX KLAN 


5 


4. It gives rise to community insecurity and 
suspicion. 

a. Men cannot trust even their neighbors. 

B. It is a political menace. 

1. It undermines democratic government. 

a. Interferes in primaries, elections, in¬ 
timidates voters, etc. 

b. Is a menace to political parties. 

C. It dictates in other American institutions. 

1. In education. 

a. It is attempting to stamp out private 
schools in Oregon. 

b. It has dictated in regard to teaching- 
forces and curricula. 

D. There are no evils sufficient to justify its self- 
appointed work. 

‘‘""X Legal machinery has not failed. 

2. There is no Catholic, Jewish, negro, or 
foreign menace. 

a. Such claims are based upon ignorance 
or misrepresentation, or are dissemi¬ 
nated for personal ends. 

(1) To gain adherents among those 
prejudiced against them. 

(2) To force them to “keep their 
place.” 

(3) To cover the Klan’s real plans. 

3. It is the honorable way to deal with cor¬ 
ruption, etc., in the open, not by under¬ 
ground methods. 

It is undesirable in every way. 

A. It belies many of the ideals it pretends to up¬ 
hold. 

1. Brotherhood is limited to membership. 

2. Americanism is of its own brand. 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


3. It breaks up homes by driving its victims 
to disgrace and banishment. 

B. It fosters cowardice. 

1. It leads men to condone its evils for fear 
of arousing its enmity. 

2. It cannot live in the open. 

a. Public opinion largely condemns it. 

b. When membership is exposed mem¬ 
bers are forced to resign. 

3. It is cowardly in punishment and acts. 

C. The real reason for its existence is commer¬ 
cialism. 

1. Heavy membership and degree fees and 
annual dues enrich its promoters. 

2. The sale of regalia nets large profit. 

D. The insidious power it acquires is a grave fu¬ 
ture danger. 

1. It is susceptible to abuse at any time under 
wrong leadership. 

a. Members must obey dictates or leave. 

2. Its avowed ideals are no guarantee of ob¬ 
servance. 

a. It is well known that movements of 
high purpose degenerate with time. 

(1) The Camorra is an example of 
such degeneration. 

3. Its acquirement of power on a large scale 
would be a menace to government. 

Negative 

I. The Ku Klux Klan stands for exalted ideals. 

A. It is an organization of the highest type. 

1. It is on the same plan as other secret so¬ 
cieties. 

2. It commemorates the sacrifice, service and 
achievements of the original Klan. 

It is legal. 


3. 


ICU ICLUX ICLAN 


7 


a. Incorporated under the laws of Geor¬ 
gia. 

4. Its membership is of the highest type. 

a. Men of moral and social standing. 

b. In many cases officials of the nation, 
state, county and city. 

5. It has an exalted ritualistic form of work. 

B. It is a practical fraternity. It tends : 

1. To promote the principles of brotherhood 
among its members. 

2. To protect womanhood and the home. 

3. To help the weak, suffering, and needy. 

4. To build a better citizenship. 

a. Inculcates respect for law. 

b. Encourages use of the ballot. 

5. To act as a vigilance committee. 

6. It is given to the practice of benevolence. 

C. It upholds other high ideals. 

1. Patriotism. 

a. Allegiance to American institutions. 

(1) It aims to conserve, protect, and 
maintain the distinctive institu¬ 
tions and ideals of a pure Amer¬ 
icanism. 

b. It is pledged to protect the Constitu¬ 
tion and the flag. 

c. It stands for America first among na¬ 
tions. 

2. Christian ideals. 

a. While conceding the right of every 
man to worship in his own way, it 

» upholds the Christian religion as op¬ 
posed to Roman Catholicism. 

b. It encourages the study of the Bible. 

3. Racial ideals. 

a. The supremacy of the white race and 
of native-born Americans. 


8 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


II. The activities and attitude of the Ku Klux Klan 
are justified. 

A. By the Catholic menace. 

1. The Klan is opposed to the domination in 
American life of a foreign ecclesiastical 
potentate. 

2. It opposes it with respect to the principle 
of the separation of church and state. 

3. It opposes the activities of the Jesuits, the 
most cunning, persistent and deceitful foes 
of Protestant Christianity. 

4. It opposes undue influence by the Knights 
of Columbus. 

B. By the negro problem. 

1. The Klan opposes negro majorities at the 
polls. 

a. The white race is the ruling race by 
inheritance. 

b. It can’t be expected to surrender to 
another control of its vital and fun¬ 
damental governmental afifairs. 

2. It opposes the teaching of social equality, 
a. Certain negro organizations and peri¬ 
odicals attempt to sow seed of discon¬ 
tent and racial hatred by such teach- 
ing. 

3. The Klan is otherwise the friend of the 
negro. 

a. No law-abiding person of any race, 
creed or color has aught to fear .from 
it. 

C. In relation to Jews. 

1. They are unproductive and money-getting. 

2. They do not subscribe to the Christian 
religion. 

D. In relation to the foreign element. 


KU KLUX KLAN 


9 


1. The Klan upholds 100 per cent American¬ 
ism. 

a. It is opposed to foreign idealism or 
allegiance. 

b. It advocates sensible and patriotic im¬ 
migration laws. 

E. In relation to corruption and crime. 

1. There is much political corruption. 

a. Sometimes there is no redress for citi¬ 
zens but the Klan. 

2. There is government within government 
dictation, practically minority rule. 

3. Private immorality goes unpunished. 

4. Bootlegging is carried on. 

III. In other ways the Klan is desirable. 

A. It is law-abiding. 

1. Lawless deeds have not and will not be 
committed by it. 

a. Mobs have not been ordered and di¬ 
rected by the Klan as an organization. 

(1) Many mobs have been put over 
by forces opposed to the Klan to 
discredit it. 

(2) They have been put over by 
indignant citizens to correct 
wrong. 

(3) They have been committed by 
lawless groups wrongfully ap¬ 
propriating its name. 

2. It is not designed to act in the capacity of 
a law-enforcement or moral correction 
agency except so far as members may as¬ 
sist regular officers of law to apprehend 
criminals and uphold law. 

3. The Rules Committee of Congress investi¬ 
gating it failed to file a report against it. 


10 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


4. It has invited investigation by the Depart¬ 
ment of Justice and the Postoffice Depart¬ 
ment of its books, records, and files. 

B. It has been misrepresented. 

1. Newspapers have never given their read¬ 
ers the truth about it. 

2. Its accusers are those who, through guilty 
conscience, fear it. 

C. Its secrecy is not to be condemned. 

1. Its power lies in the secrecy with which 
it is surrounded. 

a. It is necessary to fight its enemies 
with their own weapons. 

2. The Knights of Columbus have an oath as 
binding as the Klan, if not more so. 

D. There is no commercialism. 

1. The funds are properly and honorably 
handled in a business-like way. 

2. The dues collected are necessary in organi¬ 
zation work. 

3. No official is profiting. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Bibliographies 


United States. Library of Congress. List of references 
on Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, exclusive of the 
original Ku Klux Klan, but including night riders, 
etc. 6p. typewritten. 70c. Public Affairs Information 
Service. New York. Feb. 16, 1923. 

United States. Library of Congress. Select list of refer¬ 
ences on Ku Klux Klan. 8p. typewritten. 90c. Public 
Affairs Information Service. New York. June 20, 



General References 
Books and Pamphlets 


Beard, James Melville. K.K.K. sketches. 192p. Claxton, 
Remsen & Haffelfinger, Philadelphia. 1877. 

Brawley, Benjamin. Ku Klux Klan. In Social history of 
the American negro, p. 272-8. Macmillan, New York. 


1921. 


Brown, William Garrott. Ku Klux movement. In Lower 
south in American history, p. 191-225. Macmillan, 
New York. 1902. 

Brunson, R. J. Historic Pulaski: birthplace of the Ku 
Klux Klan. 108p. Methodist Pub. Nashville, Tenn. 
1913. 

Dixon, Thomas. Clansman: an historical romance of the 
Ku Klux Klan. 374p. Doubleday. 1916. 

Fleming, Walter L. Revised and amended prescript of 
Ku Klux Klan. 31p. Morgantown, W.Va. Feb., 1904. 

Howe, Elizabeth M. Ku Klux uniform. Buffalo Histori¬ 
cal Society. Publications. 25:9-41. '21. 


12 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


Lester, J. C. and Wilson, D. L. Ku Klux Klan : its origin, 
growth and disbandment. Introduction and notes by 
Walter L. Fleming. 198p. Neale, New York. 19Cb. 

Mississippi Historical Society. Publications. 9:109-71. 
’06. Enforcement act of 1871 and the Ku Klux Klan 
in Mississippi. J. S. McNeilly. 

United States. Circuit Court. Ku Klux trials at Colum¬ 
bia, S.C. Official report. 224p. Columbia Union, Co¬ 
lumbia, S.C. 1872. 

United States. House of Representatives. Committee on 
rules. 67th Congress, 1st session. Hearings. Ku Klux 
Klan. 184p. Supt. of doc. 1921. 

Periodicals 

American Federationist. 29:905-6. D. ’22. Confirmation 
from a strange source. 

Protest against Gov. Allen’s action in Kansas. 

Atlantic Monthly. 87: 634-44. My. ’01. Ku Klux move¬ 
ment. William Garrott Brown. 

Century Magazine, n.s. 6:398-410. Jl. ’84. Ku Klux 
Klan: its origin, growth, and disbandment. D. L. 
Wilson. 

Chautauquan. 65:170. Ja. ’12. Ku Klux: poem. Madi¬ 
son Cawein. 

Congressional Record. 63: 32-7. N. 22, ’22. Situation in 
Louisiana. 

Current History Magazine, New York Times. 14: 19-25. 
Ap. ’21. Kuklux Klan revived. Frank Parker Stock- 
bridge. 

Harper’s Weekly. 52:14-16. F. 8, ’08. Ku Klux Klan 
of today: the red record of Kentucky’s night riders 
Charles V. Tevis. 

Literary Digest. 68:44-6. F. 5, ’21. Imperial wizard and 
his Klan. 

Literary Digest. 70: 12-13. Ag. 27, ’21. Reign of the tar- 
bucket. 


ICU KLUX KLAN 


1 3 


Literary Digest. 70:34-40. S. 24, ’21. For and against 
the Ku Klux Klan. 

Literary Digest. 74: 14. Ag. 5, '22. Ku Klux victory in 
Texas. 

Literary Digest. 74:44-52. Ag. 5, ’22. Quaint customs 
and methods of the Ku Klux Klan. 

Literary Digest. 75:13. N. 11, ’22. Why Kansas bans 
the Klan. 

Literary Digest. 75: 12-13. D. 2, ’22. Klan as a national 
problem. 

Literary Digest. 76:20-1. F. 3, ’23. Canada’s keep-out 
to Klanism. 

Metropolitan Magazine. 22:657-69. S. ’05. Story of the 
Ku Klux Klan. Thomas Dixon, Jr. 

Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 1: 575-8. Mr. T5. 
Ku Klux document. Walter L. Fleming. 

Nation. 115 : 654. D. 13, ’22. Even the Klan has rights. 

Nation. 116:6. Ja. 3, ’23. Solemn but undignified pe- 
quins. 

New Republic. 33:289. F. 7, ’23. Why of the Ku Klux 
Klan. Mary W. Herring. 

Outlook. 132:643. D. 13, ’22. Invisible government. 

Spectator. 130:279-80. F. 17, ’23. Ku Klux Klan in 
America. Frank R. Kent. 

Survey. 48:10-11, 42-3. Ap. 1-8, ’22. Klan in Texas. 
Edward T. Devine. 

Texas State Historical Association Quarterly. 9:262-8. 
Ap. ’06. Ku Klux Klan. W. D. Wood. 

Wide World Magazine. 47: 339-47. Ag. ’21. K.K.K.: 
the strongest secret society on earth. Shaw Desmond. 

World’s Work. 44:296-302. Jl. ’22. Midsummer politics 
and primaries. Mark Sullivan. 

Affirmative References 

A B C of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. 8p. Ku 
Klux Press, Atlanta, Ga. 


14 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


Burton, Annie Cooper. Ku Klux Klan. 38p. Warren T. 
Potter, Los Angeles. 1916. 

Literary Digest. 76: 18-19. Ja. 20, ’23. Defense of the 
Ku Klux Klan. 

Mahoney, William James. Some ideals of the Ku Klux 
Klan. 8p. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Atlanta, Ga. 
Sawyer, R. H. Truth about the Invisible empire, Knights 
of the Ku Klux Klan. 16p. Pacific Northwest Do¬ 
main, 326 Pittock Building, Portland, Oregon. 1922. 

The author asserts material change of mind since pamphlet was 
published. 

Simmons, William Joseph. Ku Klux Klan. 12p. Author, 
Atlanta, Ga. 

Negative References 

Atlantic Monthly. 130: 122-8. Jl. ’22. Modern Ku Klux 
Klan. Leroy Percy. 

City Record. (Boston). 15:93. Ja. 17, ’23. Mayor Cur¬ 
ley’s ringing letter on Ku Klux Klan. 

Congressional Record. (Current). 62: 14207-18. S. 22, ’22. 
Against Ku Klux Klan—for religious liberty. Walter 
M. Chandler. 

Congressional Record. 63: 13-14. N. 21, ’22. Alleged out¬ 
rages in Louisiana. 

Current Opinion. 71: 561-4. N. ’21. Invisible empire in 
the spotlight. 

Forum. 65 : 426-34. Ap. ’21. Reviving the Ku Klux Klan. 
Walter F. White. 

Fry, Henry P. Modern Ku Klux Klan. 259p. $2. Small, 
Maynard, Boston. 1923. 

Contains same material as the expose of the New York World, in 1921. 

Gillis, James M. Ku Klux Klan. 14p. 5c. Paulist Press, 
120 W. 60 St, New York. 1922. 

Independent. 109: 333-4. D. 9,’22. Collapse of constitu¬ 
tional government. Chester T. Crowell. 

Political' activities in Texas. 

Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly. 133:329-30, 508-11. S. 10, 
O. 15, ’21. Nightgown tryanny; Fighting the K.K.k! 
on its home grounds. William G. Shepherd. 


KU KLUX KLAN 


i5 


Literary Digest. 70: 30-1. O. 1, ’21. Ku Klux condemned 
by the religious press. 

Literary Digest. 73: 15. Je. 10, ’22. Ku Klux in politics. 

Literary Digest. 75:33. N. 25, ’22. Protestants disown¬ 
ing the Ku Klux Klan. 

Literary Digest. 75:31-2. D. 23, ’22. New York’s anti- 
Klan outburst. 

Literary Digest. 76: 10-12. Ja. 13, ’23. Murders of Mer 
Rouge. 

Nation. 113:285-6. S. 14, ’21. Ku Klux Klan—soul of 
chivalry. Albert de Silver. 

Reprinted by American Civil Liberties Union, 138 W. 13 St. New York. 

7P. 2C. 

Nation. 115:8-10. Jl. 5, ’22. Great bigotry merger. 
Charles P. Sweeney. 

Nation. 115:514. N. 15, ’22. Our own secret fascisti. 

Nation’s peril. 144p. Friends of the compiler. New 
York. 1872. 

New Republic. 25: 195-7. Ja. 12, ’21. Election by terror 
in Florida. 

New Republic. 28:88-9. S. 21, ’21. K.K.K. 

New Republic. 33: 189-90. Ja. 17, ’23. Ku Klux and 
crime. 

New Statesman. 18:40-2. O. 15, ’21. K.K.K.—the white 
terror of America. 

New York Times. (Sports Sec.) D. 7, ’22. Starts nation¬ 
wide fight on Klan here. 

Work of the American Unity League. 

New York World. Facts about the Ku Klux Klan as the 
World told them. 16p. New York. 1921. 

Outlook. 129:46. S. 14, ’21. Imperial lawlessness. 

Outlook. 129: 79-80. S. 21, ’21. Ku Klux Klan again. 

Survey. 48:251-2. My. 13, ’22. Ku Klux Klan. Edward 
T. Ware, A. Texan, and Edward T. Devine. 

Survey. 49:76-7. O. 15, ’22. Intolerance in Oregon. 

Witcher, W. C. Unveiling of the Ku Klux Klan. 62p. 
50c. Author, Fort Worth, Texas. 1922. 




REPRINTS 

KU KLUX KLAN REVIVAL 1 


The Ku Klux Klan crossed Mason and Dixon’s line in 
the winter of 1920-21. Revived in the south some five 
years ago, this secret, oath-bound organization that had its 
origin in the troublous times of the reconstruction period 
following the Civil War in America, began during the 
winter just past to extend its activities into the north and 
west, with the avowed intention of uniting native-born 
white Christians for concerted action in the preservation 
of American institutions and the supremacy of the white 
race. 

In New York City and in other centers even further 
distant from the region in which the original Ku Klux 
Klan was active there have been planted nuclei of the 
revived organization, according to the statements of its 
officials. How many such centers have been established 
in the north and west and the extent of the membership 
are not revealed. As in the original Ku Klux Klan, mem¬ 
bers are known only to each other; the general public is 
permitted to know only certain national officers connected 
with the organization. 

To the average American the mention of the name 
suggests terrorism. The mental picture of the Ku Klux, 
to those to whom the words conjure up any mental pic¬ 
ture at all, is of a band of white-robed, hooded riders, 
appearing mysteriously out of the darkness and proceed¬ 
ing, silently and with complete discipline, to execute some 
extra-legal mission of warning or of private vengeance. 
That, at least, is the reaction of the average northern 

1 By Frank Parker Stockbridge. Current History Magazine, New York 
Times. 14 : 19-25. April, 1921. 


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white man, whose knowledge of the Ku Klux Klan is 
derived entirely from reading or the “movies.” To him 
it is something like the Vigilantes of early California days 
or the “Night Riders” of the Kentucky tobacco war of 
the early twentieth century; the words carry to his ears 
an unmistakable flavor of lynch law, and, if he be old 
enough to have read the writings of Albion W. Tourgee 
and other northern authors who wrote of the south in the 
reconstruction period, he cannot escape the implication 
of lawless oppression of the negro by the white. 

Attitude of the North 

That substantially the impression set down above is 
that prevailing in the north, where any impression of the 
Ku Klux Klan at all exists, is probably a conservative 
statement of the fact. It was doubtless such an impression 
that led the mayor of New York to declare, in a public 
letter, that the entrance of the Ku Klux Klan into the 
metropolis would not be tolerated. An assistant district 
attorney, Alfred J. Talley, since elevated to the bench of 
the General Sessions, took occasion in the autumn of 
1920, when it was stated in newspaper dispatches that 
the Klan was about to extend its organization into the 
north, to write a letter to the newspapers declaring that 
any attempt on the part of the Ku Klux to carry on in 
the county of New York what he regarded as its cus¬ 
tomary activities would be the signal for action by the 
criminal authorities of the county. Mr. Talley undoubt¬ 
edly voiced the general northern view, at that time, of the 
Ku Klux Klan. 

Alfred J. Talley, Assistant District Attorney of New 
York, when informed of the effort to organize a Ku Klux 
Klan in New York City, expressed himself as follows: 

There is no room in the great, broadminded state of New 
York for so un-American an organization as the Ku Klux Klan. 
The pretension that it apparently makes to patriotism enforces 
Samuel Johnson’s definition of patriotism, “The last refuge of a 
scoundrel.” No secret oath-bound organization is needed to pre- 


KU KLUX ICLAN 


19 


serve and perpetuate devotion to the American government, nor 
to uphold the laws of the land, and the Constitution upon which 
our government is founded. 

Mr. Talley referred to the organization as composed 
of ‘'narrow-minded bigots” and “scareheaded fanatics, 
who are opposed to everything that Abraham Lincoln 
stood for. 

There is no place for them in New York, and the citizens 
and real Americans will set their faces against them and their 
wild aspirations. 

When this announcement was published on December 
17 , 1920, William Joseph Simmons of Atlanta, Ga., styl¬ 
ing himself “Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan,” 
telegraphed Mr. Talley, asking him whether he had been 
correctly quoted, whereupon Mr. Talley sent this reply: 

I was correctly quoted, and my remarks were directed specif¬ 
ically at your organization. 

As Viewed in the South 

To the southern white man, however, the name of 
this organization brings up a different picture. 

“The Ku Klux Klan saved the south” is the expres¬ 
sion in which he sums up in a phrase a point of view 
which has grown into a fixed tradition in the states of the 
former Confederacy. To the average southern white man 
of today the name of the Ku Klux Klan, after the lapse 
of half a century, typifies all that was best and finest in 
the chivalry of the old south. It conveys to him the im¬ 
pression of valiant men resisting tyranny, of the salva¬ 
tion of the white race from threatened negro domination 
(with all that that implied socially as well as politically), 
and of the rescue of the white womanhood of the south 
from a frightful and ever-present peril. 

The purpose of the Ku Klux Klan has been sympa¬ 
thetically recorded by Dr. Walter Lynwood Fleming, 
Professor of History in the Vanderbilt University, who 
edited Lester and Wilson’s “History of the Ku Klux 


20 


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Klan” and is the author of several historical books and 
articles dealing with the reconstruction period. 

“The object [of the Ku Klux Klan] was to protect 
the whites during the disorders that followed the Civil 
War, and to oppose the policy of the north toward the 
south,” says Dr. Fleming in an article in the Encyclo¬ 
paedia Britannica. “The result of the whole movement 
was a more or less successful revolution against the re¬ 
construction and an overthrow of the governments based 
on negro suffrage.” 

Origin of the Order 

Formed in 1865 at Pulaski, Tenn., as a social club of 
young white men, with what Dr. Fleming calls “an ab¬ 
surd ritual and a strange uniform,” it was soon discov¬ 
ered by the members that “the fear of it had a great 
influence over the lawless but superstitious blacks.” In 
the difficult situation confronting the conquered south, it 
was inevitable that this power to terrorize should be 
availed of. “Soon,” says Dr. Fleming, “the club ex¬ 
panded into a great federation of regulators, absorbing 
numerous local bodies that had been formed in the ab¬ 
sence of civil law and partaking of the nature of the old 
English neighborhood police and the ante-bellum slave 
patrol.” 

Among the conditions and causes that enabled the 
Ku Klux Klan to develop in two or three years into the 
most powerful instrument of regulation in the whole 
south, Dr. Fleming enumerates these: 

“The absence of stable government in the south for 
several years after the Civil War; the corrupt and tyran¬ 
nical rule of the alien, renegade and negro; the disfran¬ 
chisement of whites; the spread of ideas of social and 
political equality among the negroes; fear of negro insur¬ 
rections ; the arming of the negro militia and the disarm¬ 
ing of whites; outrages upon white women by black men ; 
the influence of northern adventurers in the Freedmen's 


KU KLUX KLAN 


21 


Bureau and the Union League in alienating the races; the 
humiliation of Confederate soldiers after they had been 
paroled—in general, the insecurity felt by southern whites 
during the decade after the collapse of the Confederacy/’ 

“The Invisible Empire” 

In its perfect organization the old Ku Klux Klan had 
at its head, with the title of Grand Wizard, General Na¬ 
than Bedford Forrest, the former Confederate cavalry 
leader whom General William Tecumseh Sherman char¬ 
acterized as “the most remarkable man the Civil War 
produced on either side.” The Grand Wizard ruled the 
“Invisible Empire,” which consisted of the entire south. 
Over each state or “realm” presided a “Grand Dragon.” 
Counties were “provinces,” each with its “Grand Giant” ; 
a group of counties was a “Dominion” ruled by a “Grand 
Titan” and local units were “dens,” over which the 
“Grand Cyclops” held sway. Staff officers bore such titles 
as Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins, Night Hawks, Magi, 
Monks and Turks, while individual members were 
Ghouls. 

The constitution of the Ku Klux Klan, like that of 
the similar though larger organization, the Knights of 
the White Camelia and several smaller groups having 
the same general purposes, contained certain declarations 
of principles which Professor Fleming thus summarizes: 

To protect and succor the weak and unfortunate, especially 
the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers; to protect 
members of the white race in life, honor and property from the 
encroachments of the blacks; to oppose the Radical Republican 
Party and the Union League; to defend constitutional liberty, 
to prevent usurpation, to emancipate the whites, maintain peace 
and order, the laws of God, the principles of 1776 and the 
political and social supremacy of the white race—in short, to 
oppose African influence in government and society and to pre¬ 
vent any intermingling of the races. 

Native whites, largely disfranchised because of their 
active participation in the rebellion, formed one moiety 
of the social structure of the south at the close of the 


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Civil War; the other part was composed of the newly 
enfranchised blacks, the northern white man (called “car¬ 
pet-baggers”) who participated in the effort to set up a 
negro government in the southern states and a modicum 
of native whites who cooperated with them, known as 
“scalawags.” The Ku Klux movement was an effort of 
the first class to destroy the control of the second class. 

Some of the Methods 

Professor Fleming says: 

To control the negro, the Klan played upon his superstitious 
fears by having night patrols, parades and drills of silent horse¬ 
men covered with white sheets, carrying skulls with coals of fire 
for eyes, sacks of bones to rattle and wearing hideous masks. . . 
Mysterious signs and warnings were sent to disorderly negro 
politicians. The whites who were responsible for the conduct 
of the blacks were warned or driven away by social or business 
ostracism or by violence. Nearly all southern whites . . . took 
part in the Ku Klux movement. As the work of the societies 
succeeded they gradually passed out of existence. In some com¬ 
munities they fell into the control of violent men and became 
simply bands of outlaws . . . and the anarchical aspects of the 
movement excited the north to vigorous condemnation. 

The United States Congress in 1871-72 enacted laws 
intended to break up the Ku Klux and other secret so¬ 
cieties; several hundred arrests were made and several 
convictions followed. Much of the violence was checked, 
but the movement undoubtedly accomplished its prime 
purposes of giving protection to the whites, reducing the 
blacks to order, driving out the “carpet-baggers” and 
nullifying the laws that had placed the southern whites 
under control of the party of the former slaves. 

It is easy to see from the above sketch whence both 
the northerner and the southerner derive their contrary 
impressions of the organization. The former remembers 
the congressional investigations and trials of the Ku Klux 
leaders, the evidence adduced of violence and law-break¬ 
ing, of the whipping of negroes and of carpet-baggers and 
even of men being dragged from their beds and slain; 


KU KLUX KLAN 


23 


the latter remembers, or has had handed down to him 
the story of the time when, to quote from Woodrow Wil¬ 
son’s “History of the American People,” “adventurers 
swarmed out of the north, as much the enemies of one 
race as of the other, to cozen, beguile and use the negroes. 
The white men were aroused by a mere instinct of self- 
preservation—until at last there sprung into existence a 
great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the south, to 
protect the southern country.” 

That the occasion which gave rise to the original Ku 
Klux movement was a real crisis, affecting the welfare 
and happiness of a whole people, the impartial historian 
of today may well concede; that in meeting the crisis by 
the means that were used the south was fighting for the 
preservation of what it deemed right, even holy, with the 
only weapon at its command, is hardly to be controverted. 

Ku Klux Klan Today 

What crisis, what menace to the ideals and the civil¬ 
ization of any considerable body of people exists today 
to give vitality to the revival of the Ku Klux Klan after 
the lapse of fifty years? Unless some satisfying answer 
can be made to that question, the subject is hardly one 
to be treated seriously; unless there exists (or it is be¬ 
lieved by a great number of persons that there does exist) 
a real need for the banding together of native-born white 
Christians in a militant organization for mutual protec¬ 
tion, any organization based on such a premise must in¬ 
evitably fall to pieces of its own weight. And while the 
original Ku Klux Klan was purely sectional in its activi¬ 
ties, whereas the revived Ku Klux Klan is extending its 
field to the entire United States, the ground for its exist¬ 
ence and continued growth must be sought in national 
rather than in local conditions. 

Part of the answer to the question just propounded 
is not difficult to deduce from such of the literature of 
the Ku Klux as is permitted to be distributed to those 


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THE REFERENCE SHELF 


not affiliated with the organization; part of it is con¬ 
tained in statements by high officials of the organization 
or published with their sanction. 

To every inquirer writing to the Klan’s headquarters 
in Atlanta for information is sent a printed form of ques¬ 
tionnaire. Of the twenty questions asked on this paper, 
which must be filled out and signed before further infor¬ 
mation is vouchsafed nine seem to be pertinent to the 
point under consideration. These are: 

Were your parents born in the United States of America? 

Are you a Gentile or a Jew? 

Are you of the white race or of a colored race? 

Do you believe in the principles of a pure Americanism? 

Do you believe in white supremacy? 

What is your politics? 

What is your religious faith? 

Of what religious faith are your parents? 

Do you owe any kind of allegiance to any foreign nation, 
government, institution, sect, people, ruler or person? 

To the inquirer sending in the questionnaire satis¬ 
factorily filled out there become available pamphlets giv¬ 
ing details of the organization’s present purposes and 
principles. To quote from one of these pamphlets: 

T. he purpose of the modern Ku Klux Ivlan is to inculcate the 
sacred principles and noble ideals of chivalry, the development of 
character, the protection of the home and the chastity of woman¬ 
hood, the exemplification of a pure and practical patriotism 
toward our glorious country, the preservation of American ideals 
and institutions, and the maintenance of white supremacy. 
Only native-born white American citizens who believe in the 
tenets of the Christian religion and who owe no allegiance of 
any degree or nature to any foreign government or institution, 
religious or political, or to any sect, people or persons are 
eligible for membership. 

Classes That Are Barred 

^Five classes of persons are at once barred by this 
pronouncement. They are: (1) negroes, (2) Japanese 
and other Orientals, (3) Roman Catholics, (4) Jews, 
(5) all foreign-born persons. \ 


KU KLUX ICLAN 


25 


Without questioning the right of the Ku Klux or of 
any other organization to set up its own qualifications 
for membership and to exclude any individual or any 
group of individuals, it is of interest to note that the four 
groups particularly excluded in this instance are, each 
in degree varying with local conditions, the storm-centers 
of present-day racial antagonisms in the United States. 

Anti-Semitic propaganda is more open and active in 
America than at any time in recent history. 

To the mass mind of America the Irish question is 
chiefly a religious question; the issue at stake the control 
of Ireland by the Roman Catholic Church, and the per¬ 
sistent effort of the American supporters of Sinn Fein to 
arouse antagonism in this country toward England a sub¬ 
tle piece of religious propaganda. Quite regardless of its 
truth or falsity, there can be no doubt of the wide ac¬ 
ceptance of this view by a large proportion of Protestant 
Americans. 

That the Japanese question is a tremendously vital 
issue west of the Rockies is a familiar fact to every news¬ 
paper reader; it is equally true that the anti-Japanese 
sentiment of the Pacific coast is shared by a large propor¬ 
tion of Americans in other sections, who have become 
convinced that the interests of the nation are seriously 
menaced by Japanese occupation of California lands and 
that war with Japan may occur at any time. 

The Negro Question 

New impetus has been given to the negro question, 
more particularly in the south, but to some extent 
throughout the country, by conditions arising from the 
war. The great demand for labor during the war brought 
about the greatest migration in history of negroes from 
the south to the north. Pligh wages, north and south, 
raised the negro for a time to unheard-of pinnacles of 
affluence. Then the sudden slump in business threw back 
into idleness thousands who had become accustomed to 


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“easy money/’ Many of these found themselves hun¬ 
dreds of miles from their homes with no means of re^ 
turning; large fractions of the whole number had for¬ 
gotten their old habit of docility in their brief period of 
financial independence and ventured to assert their rights 
as citizens in a manner offensive to the dominant white 
race. 

(Renewed agitation for the recognition of the negro on 
the plane of complete equality with the whites was one 
of the inevitable results of the war conditions that put 
the negro worker on the same economic plane with the 
white workman; the negro soldier and officer into the 
same uniform and the same service as the white soldiers. 

(The demands of the National Association for the Ad¬ 
vancement of the Colored People for the abolition of 
segregation of the races in the government departments 
at Washington, the reduction of Congressional representa¬ 
tion in the southern states in proportion as the negro is 
disfranchised, the pardon of the imprisoned soldiers of 
the Twenty-fourth Infantry held in Leavenworth for the 
Houston riots, the abolition of “Jim Crow” cars on inter¬ 
state railroad trains and the appointment of negro As¬ 
sistant Secretaries of Labor and Agriculture are pointed 
to by officials of the Ku Klux Klan as proof that white 
supremacy is now acutely and nationally menaced.^) The 
National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People, in turn, has included in its published statement 
of purposes “The defeat, by every legitimate means, of 
the nefarious Ku Klux Klan, both south and north.” So 
the issue here, at least, is squarely joined. 

National Expansion Sought 

It is on such grounds as those just enumerated that 
the revived Ku Klux Klan bases its expectation of ex¬ 
tending beyond the boundaries of the south. It has been 
in existence, this present-day successor of the old Ku 
Klux, since the latter part of 1915, when it was chartered 


KU ICLUX KLAN 


27 


as a legitimate fraternal organization by the state of 
Georgia. The originator of the idea of reviving the old 
institution under the old name was Colonel William Jo¬ 
seph Simmons of Atlanta, now Professor of Southern 
History in Lanier University. Associated with him in the 
application for a charter from the state of Georgia were 
three surviving members of the old Ku Klux Klan. By 
virtue of this fact the new Klan declares itself, in its con¬ 
stitution, to be the only legitimate heir of the original 
organization, with sole rights to all its signs, symbols, re¬ 
galias, etc. It is organized on similar lines to the original 
Ku Klux Klan, with similar, though slightly different, 
titles for its officers. Colonel Simmons is the “Imperial 
Wizard” or supreme head of the order, the full title of 
which is “The Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux 
Klan.” The old regalia of white robe and pointed cap 
covering the face of the wearer is retained by the new 
organization, which claims to be fully organized through¬ 
out the south and to have a considerable number of local 
nuclei planted in half or more of the states. 

Pretends to Uphold Law 

Cooperation with the authorities of the law is set forth 
as one of the tenets of the revived Ku Klux Klan. “Be¬ 
cause certain individuals at various times have committed 
acts of violence under cover of darkness and shielded by 
masks and robes somewhat resembling the official regalia 
of the Ku Klux Klan,” says one of the organization’s 
official pronouncements, “they have been classed as mem¬ 
bers of this organization. The Ku Klux Klan is a strictly 
law-abiding organization, and every member is sworn to 
uphold the law at all times and to assist officers of the 
law in preserving peace and order whenever the occasion 
may arise, and any member violating this oath would be 
banished forever from the organization. 

Among the principles for which this organization 
stands are: Suppression of graft by public office holders; 


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preventing the causes of mob violence and lynchings, pie¬ 
venting unwarranted strikes by foreign agitators; sensi¬ 
ble and patriotic immigration laws; sovereignty of state 
rights under the Constitution; separation of church and 
state, and freedom of speech and press, a freedom such 
as does not strike at nor imperil our government or the 
cherished institutions of our people.” 

Among the membership of the old Ku Klux Klan 
were many northern soldiers, members of the army of 
occupation sent into the south after the Civil War to pre¬ 
serve order and maintain the reconstruction governments 
in power. In the new Ku Klux Klan, it is stated, are to 
be found state, county and municipal officials of every 
degree, police officers and men, as well as a number of 
United States officials, Senators and members of Con¬ 
gress. 

One Instance of Operations 

How the Klan operates may best be indicated by 
quoting from statements publicly made by authority of its 
national officials. Birmingham, Ala., recently had a “wave 
of crime.” The Ku Klux Klan offered its services to the 
city officials to help stamp out evil conditions. The offer 
was accepted, and the seven hundred local members di¬ 
rected their efforts, in secret, against criminals and “un¬ 
desirables” of both races. Their claim that they rendered 
valuable assistance to the police is supported by the fact 
that they assert that the Chief of Police of. Birmingham 
sent a telegram to the Chief of Police of Nashville, Tenn., 
when he learned that a branch of the organization was to 
be established there, heartily endorsing the Ku Klux 
movement. They claim that many such letters and tele¬ 
grams of endorsement from mayors, sheriffs and chiefs of 
police of southern cities are on file in the Klan’s head¬ 
quarters. 

In Jacksonville, Fla., the method of a public parade at 
night was adopted. Several hundred members of the 


KU KLUX KLAN 


29 


Klan, garbed in robes and hoods, rode through the city, 
scattering printed placards which read: 

Warning—Undesirables, both white and black, we know 
you. This loafing, thieving and prowling around must stop. 

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. 

A high official of the Ku Klux Klan told the writer of 
a dramatic though less spectacular demonstration of the 
organization’s methods. He stated that in one city, in 
which it was well organized, an investigation into under¬ 
lying conditions making for crime and disorder indicated 
that the chief trouble lay in the manner in which one of 
the city’s courts was conducted. A special committee, he 
says, with an expert investigator employed, spent weeks 
in drawing up what amounted to an indictment of the 
judge of this court. The document was handed to the 
judge with a letter, signed by the Ku Klux Klan, asking 
him to read the charges and to realize that his future 
course would be as carefully scrutinized as his past ac¬ 
tions. He stated there was no threat, no demand for his 
resignation; on the contrary, the belief was expressed 
that he could and would reform the conditions in his 
court. “A year later,” said the official who told this story, 
“I was talking with a very eminent jurist who was 
familiar with the conditions in this court. He said that 
the improvement that had been observed in its conduct 
had been a matter of the greatest gratification to him, and 
that he had been unable to account for it until I told him 
how it was brought about.” 

The power of the Ku Klux Klan today, like that of 
its prototype of half a century ago, lies in the secrecy and 
mystery with which it and its operations are surrounded. 
Its members are known only to each other and may not 
disclose the fact of their membership to outsiders. Out¬ 
side the Klan none can know whether its warnings are 
backed by ten men or thousands in any community. To 
the assertion that there is no need and no room for such 
an extra-legal institution to enforce law and order, the 
officers of the Klan point to the newspaper chronicles of 


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THE REFERENCE SHELF 


crime and disorder in every part of the country. To the 
charge that they are a negro-whipping organization, thriv¬ 
ing on race prejudice, they reply that no law-abiding 
person of any race, creed or color has anything to fear 
from them; they assert that they are the friends of every 
self-respecting man, black or white, but that they main¬ 
tain the inherent superiority of the Caucasian stock, and 
that their order intends to use every legitimate means to 
retain it in control of America. 


KU KLUX KLAN—WHO—WHY—WHAT 1 

1 The history of civilization has many instances in 
which a race, religious or class consciousness has come 
and swept all before it, and often these revolutions of 
thought have found expression in secret orders. 

The Maccabeans, the early Christians, the Crusaders, 
the Reformation, the French Revolution, Cromwell’s 
Commonwealth, the Boston Tea Party and many other 
great solvents in civilization were only able to effectively 
oppose the establishment of, or throw off the yoke of, 
tyranny by shrouding their work in secrecy during the 
movement’s early stages/ - 

Among the great secret movements of the world’s 
history that have been brought into existence to right the 
wrongs of humanity, there is no more shining example 
than the original, genuine order of the Ku Klux Klan 
which was organized in 1866, and after accomplishing its 
noble purpose, voluntarily disbanded by order of its 
Grand Wizard, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, in the 
year 1870. 

The Ku Klux Klan —The Invisible Empire—was the 
great idea of American reconstruction. We say “Ameri¬ 
can reconstruction” for the reason that all America was 
affected by reconstruction influences. The south most of 
all, yes, but nevertheless— all; for the great threat to the 
white race that loomed on the horizon of the south would 

1 From A B C of the Ku Klux Klan. Ku Klux Klan Tress, Atlanta. 

C tf*nrcyia 


KU KLUX KLAN 


3i 


have spread throughout the entire nation, had not the 
white robe of the Ku Klux Klan kept unrevealed those 
courageous and devoted hearts that were consecrated to 
saving the Anglo-Saxon civilization of our country, pro¬ 
tecting the homes and well-being of our people and shield¬ 
ing the virtue of womanhood. 

The original Ku Klux were not outlaws or moral de¬ 
generates, nor did they perpetrate outlawry. They were 
men of moral and social standing and their leaders were 
men of sterling character and unquestioned culture. They 
reverently bowed to the soul of real law and swore to 
enforce its principle of justice, protection and the pur¬ 
suit of happiness. Their strong arm fought valiantly for 
the preservation of the integrity of the race against the 
cruelty of base, unjust and tyrannical legislation and in¬ 
sufferable conditions created by a horde of conscience¬ 
less, diabolical, greed and lust-crazed adventurers that 
swarmed down from the north to use the negro for their 
own damnable, selfish ends. These adventurers poisoned 
the minds of and brutalized the inoffensive negro and 
converted many of them into human beasts by their cheap 
whiskey and glaring promises of rich reward and loosed 
them armed and inflamed upon the sacred privileges and 
persons of the suffering and defenseless southern people. 

The Ku Klux Klan stood firmly upon the solemn 
promise of the federal government made through Gen¬ 
eral Grant to General Lee, and the rights of citizens 
vouchsafed by the Constitution and it swore allegiance 
to the principles of that Constitution. It was the defender 
of justice, the enforcer of civil and racial law and the 
great regulator of the galling irregularities of prostituted 
law at the hands of so-called men, the mentioning of 
whose names is an insult to the blood of the race of 
Caucasian stock. It struck from the neck of the wounded, 
bleeding, pauperized and prostrated south the dirty heel 
of the degenerated outlaw —the “scalawag” and the “car¬ 
pet-bagger” and the misguided, lust-crazed negro, and 


32 


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made possible the birth of the greatest nation of all time 
-—the re-United States of America; it destroyed the fa¬ 
natic’s vile hope of the amalgamation of the races, firmly 
established the most valuable heritage of the race—white 
supremacy—forever, and restored the people of Wash¬ 
ington, Jefferson, Marion and their compatriots in the 
founding of the nation to their rightful place in the 
peerless pleasure of American citizenship. 

In all history no people has ever suffered such tor¬ 
turous humiliation and endured such intense woe as the 
people of the south during the frightful night of the 
American reconstruction, and God only knows what the 
ultimate result would have been had the atrocious recon¬ 
struction scheme of those contemptible politicians who 
conceived and engineered it gone on to a successful con¬ 
summation. 

The most vicious and deadly enemies of both races 
were the dirty carpet-bagger and his vile henchmen— 
the scalawag—who together controlled the Freedman’s 
Bureau and other organizations and perpetrated the most 
abominable outrages on humanity known in the annals of 
civilization. They had at their beck and call the com¬ 
bined powers of a great nation well trained in arms, and 
detachments of troops were in every county in the south. 
By them the law and the Constitution were regarded as 
“mere scraps of paper”; for, under the so-called martial 
law the whim and word of every petty military com¬ 
mandant was enforced and no one dared to question, 
dispute or complain. No man’s home was safe, the chas¬ 
tity of womankind was not secure, and the property right 
of the people was a thing of the past. 

This was the terrible condition, unparalleled in his¬ 
tory, which was ruthlessly imposed upon the southern 
people. The devil and his most infamous imps held un¬ 
disputed sway. The night was dark ; for all the stars 
had gone out. To correct this condition and to break 
the greedy grasp of this unutterable tyranny called for 
mystery and action; mystery complete, and action drastic, 


ICU KLUX ICLAN 


33 


courageous, certain, swift and sure. In the providence 
of God the Ku Klux Klan arose, a mighty impulse of an 
unconquered race, a veritable and invisible empire to save 
the southern country and to destroy an organized force 
of diabolism that threatened the whole nation. 

The work of that mystic society was indeed well done. 
It met the combined force against it and through many 
years of dangerous and strenuous strife it won, and in 
winning it brought order out of chaos, replaced fanatical, 
pernicious persecution with perpetual peace; the wail of 
poverty with the music of prosperity; insolent indolence 
with industry and thrift, and compelled the whole world 
to recognize the racial barriers erected by the Creator of 
races and preserved from an everlasting legalized con¬ 
tamination the sacred blood of the Caucasian race. 
Through it right triumphed over might; an unscrupulous 
military dictatorship was forever removed, Constitutional 
law was re-enthroned, righteous justice was re-estab¬ 
lished among men and the sovereign rights of the people 
respected. It did more toward cementing anew the alien¬ 
ated states of our nation into an indissoluble Union than 
any other organized force. It harbored no prejudice and 
perpetrated no injustices; it committed no malicious 
wrong and accomplished its intricate, titanic task and 
achieved its noble mission and purpose “without fear and 
without reproach.” 

A greater achievement in all history was never accom¬ 
plished for culture, civilization and humanity. The men 
of that society were the champions of real liberty and the 
peerless paragons of a pure patriotism. A great courage, 
a dauntless spirit, a manly, necessary mission and lofty 
ideals were the actuating principles of those valiant men. 

The Ku Klux Klan by its unselfish, patriotic achieve¬ 
ment stands pre-eminent as the greatest order of real 
chivalry the world has ever known, and its members were 
the noblest heroes in the great world’s history. In sim¬ 
ple justice should their sacred memory be forgotten? 
Should their patriotic achievements be lost to posterity? 


34 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


Shall we of this and those of future generations allow 
the cruel calumny satanic slander and flagrant false¬ 
hoods heaped upon them for the past half-century to pass, 
be repeated and go unanswered by an accurate and honest 
revelation of the whole truth, and suffer our progeny to 
believe that they are under disgrace by being descendants 
of a degraded and beastly ancestry? No! No!! No!!! 
No real man in all America will consent to such a crime 
against the heroic dead. Hence, a great memorial is now 
being built to commemorate those men and perpetuate 
their spiritual purpose and ideals. This monument shall 
be constructed of real American manhood and cast in the 
proportions and character of a great fraternal order and 
it is and shall be known as the 

Invisible Empire 
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan 

The noble ride of the Ku Klux Klan is immortalized 
by' their accomplishments, and is memorialized by the 
men of today who appreciate the chivalric, holy and pa¬ 
triotic achievements of the original Klan in the perma¬ 
nence of this great fraternity. The spirit of the Ku Klux 
Klan still lives, and should live a priceless heritage to be 
sacredly treasured by all those who love their country, 
regardless of section, and are proud of its sacred tradi¬ 
tions. That this spirit may live always to warm the hearts 
of manly men, unify them by the spirit of a holy clan- 
ishness, to assuage the billowing tide of fraternal aliena¬ 
tion that surges in human breasts, and inspire them to 
achieve the highest and noblest in the defense of our 
country, our race, our homes, each other and humanity 
is the paramount ideal of the Knights of the Ku Klux 
Klan—a great institution composed of men of character 
and intelligence, men who aspire to that which is noble 
for themselves and humanity. 

A few survivors of the old Klan were among the 
charter members of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 


KU KLUX KLAN 


35 


and old Klansmen who can qualify are taken into the or¬ 
der without cost and shall be known as “Klansmen- 
Emeritus,” or “Original Klansmen,” for they are worthy. 

A Sacred Duty —A Precious Privilege 

A true American cannot give a higher and more sin¬ 
cere expression of appreciation of and gratitude for what 
was accomplished by our fathers in the defense of home 
and the sacred rights of our people than by becoming a 
“citizen of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux 
Klan.” He cannot align himself with any institution that 
will mean so much for himself, his home and his country 
as this great order. 

C It Stands For 

A America first: First in thought, first in affections and 
first in the galaxy of nations. The stars and stripes for¬ 
ever above all other and every kind of government in the 
whole world. 

B Benevolence: In thought, word and deed based upon 
justice and practically applied to all. To right the wrong; 
to succor the weak and unfortunate; to help the worthy 
and to relieve the distressed. 

C Clanishness: Real fraternity practically applied— 
standing by and sticking to each other in all things hon¬ 
orable. Encouraging, protecting, cultivating and exempli¬ 
fying the real “fraternal human relationship” to shield 
and enhance each other’s happiness and welfare. A de¬ 
voted, unfailing loyalty to the principles, mission and pur¬ 
poses of the order in promoting the highest and best in¬ 
terest of the community, state and nation. ^ 

What it is: It is a standard fraternal order enforcing 
fraternal conduct, and not merely a “social association.” 
It is a duly incorporated, legally recognized institution, 
honest in purpose, made in sentiment and practical in re¬ 
sults that commands the hearty respect of all respectable 


36 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


people throughout the nation. It is not encouraging or 
condoning any propaganda of religious intolerance nor 
racial prejudice. It is an association of real men who be¬ 
lieve in being something, in doing things worth while and 
who are in all things 100 per cent pure American. Yet 
it is vastly more than merely a social fraternal order. 

Its initial purpose: An enduring monument to the 
valor and patriotic achievements of the Ku Klux Klan. 
That this monument be not embodied in cold, emotionless 
stone, but in living, pulsating human hearts and active 
human brains, and find a useful expression in the nobility 
of the character of real manly men; this is the only me¬ 
morial that will adequately befit the memory of the valiant 
Ku Klux Klan. 

Its lineage: The most sublime lineage in history, com¬ 
memorating and perpetuating, as it does, the most daunt¬ 
less organization known to man. 

Its secret: Sacred guardianship to the most sacred 
cause. 

Its courage: The soul of chivalry and virtue’s im¬ 
penetrable shield. The impulse of an unconquered race. 

Its teachings: To inculcate the sacred principles and 
noble ideals of the world’s greatest order of chivalry; 
and direct the way of the initiate through the veil of 
mystic philosophy into the Empire Invisible. 

Its character: The noblest concepts of manhood ideal¬ 
ized in thought and materialized in practice in all the 
relationships of life. Mystery and action; mastery and 
achievement. 

Its ritualism: Is vastly different from anything in the 
whole universe of fraternal ritualism. It is altogether 
original, weird, mystical and of a high class, leading up 
through four degrees. Dignity and decency are its marked 
features. It unfolds a spiritual philosophy that has to do 
with the very fundamentals of life and living, here and 
hereafter. He who explores the dismal depths of the 


KU KLUX ICLAN 


37 


mystic cave and from thence attains the lofty heights of 
superior knighthood may sit among the gods in the Em¬ 
pire Invisible. 

Its patriotism: An uncompromising standard of pure 
Americanism untrammeled by alien influences and free 
from the entanglements of foreign alliances. Proclaim¬ 
ing the brotherhood of nations but wedding none, thereby 
unyielding in the dignity of our own independence and 
forever faultless in our freedom. 

Its mission: Duty—without fault, without fail, with¬ 
out fear and without reproach. 

Its society: The practical fraternal fellowship of men 
whose standard is worth not wealth; character, not cash, 
courageous manhood based upon honor untarnished by 
the touch of hypocrisy or the veneering of society's sel¬ 
fish social valuations. 

Its place: In the heart of every “true American,” 
alongside of every other fraternal order, and in its origi¬ 
nal casting, unique mannerism, sacred sentiment, noble 
purpose and peculiar mysticism it is separate and apart 
from any and all and peerless in its distinctive peculiari¬ 
ties. 

Its fraternity: Not merely reciting in ceremony pretty, 
time-worn platitudes on brotherly love, but to enforce a 
fraternal practice of clanishness; thereby making devotion 
to its standard worth while. “The glory of a Klansman 
is to serve.” 

Its origin: This great institution, as a patriotic, ritual¬ 
istic fraternal order, is no hastily “jumped-up”affair. It 
has been in the making for the past twenty years. It is 
a product of deliberate thought. The one man (William 
Joseph Simmons) who is responsible for it conceived the 
idea twenty years ago. For fourteen years he thought, 
studied and worked to prepare himself for its launching. 
He had dedicated his life to this noble cause. He kept 
his own counsel during these years and in the silent 


38 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


recesses of his soul he thought out the great plan. During 
the early days of October, 1915, he mentioned his am¬ 
bition to some friends, among whom were three men 
who were bona-fide members of the original Klan when 
it disbanded, they most heartily cooperated with him. 
Having met with such encouragement he invited several 
of his friends to a meeting on the night of October 26th, 
1915, at which time he unfolded his plans, and as a re¬ 
sult all present, thirty-four in number, signed a petition 
for a charter. The petition was accepted and on Thanks¬ 
giving night, 1915, men were seen emerging from the 
shadows and gathering around the spring at the base of 
Stone Mountain (the world’s greatest rock, near Atlanta, 
Ga.) and from thence repaired to the mountain top and 
there under a blazing fiery cross, they took the oath of 
allegiance to the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku 
Klux Klan. The charter was issued by the state of 
Georgia, December 4th, 1915, and signed by Honorable 
Philip Cook, Secretary of State. In the development of 
the order a petition was made to the Superior Court, Ful¬ 
ton County, Georgia, for a special charter, and said char¬ 
ter was issued July 1st, 1916. The Imperial Wizard issued 
his Imperial Proclamation July 4th, 1916. 

And thus on the mountain top that night at the mid¬ 
night hour while men braved the surging blasts of wild 
wintry mountain winds and endured a temperature far 
below freezing, bathed in the sacred glow of the fiery 
cross, the Invisible Empire was called from its slumber 
of half a century to take up a new task and fulfill a new 
mission for humanity’s good and to call back to mortal 
habitation the good angel of practical fraternity among 
men. 

Prerequisites to Citizenship in the Invisible 
Empire 

This order is founded upon dependable character. It 
is not an ultra-exclusive institution, but its membership 
is composed of “picked” men. 


KU KLUX ICLAN 


39 


No man is wanted in this order who hasn’t manhood 
enough to assume a real oath with serious purpose to 
keep the same inviolate. 

No man is wanted in this order who will not or can¬ 
not swear an unqualified allegiance to the government 
of the United States of America, its flag and its Constitu¬ 
tion. 

No man is wanted in this order who does not esteem 
the government of the United States above any other 
government, civil, political or ecclesiastical, in the whole 
world. 

No man is wanted in this order who cannot practice 
real fraternity toward each and every one of his oath- 
bound associates. 

Only native-born American citizens who believe in 
the tenets of the Christian religion and owe no allegiance 
of any degree or nature to any foreign government, na¬ 
tion, political institution, sect, people or person, are eligi¬ 
ble. 

Because certain individuals at various times have 
committed acts of violence under cover of darkness and 
shielded by masks and robes somewhat resembling the 
official regalia of the Ku Klux Klan, they have been 
classed as members of this organization. The Ku Klux 
Klan is a strictly law-abiding organization and every 
member is sworn to uphold the law in preserving peace 
and order whenever the occasion may arise, and any mem¬ 
ber violating this oath would be banished forever from 
the organization. In other words, it is a practical fra¬ 
ternal order pledged to wholesome service, and not merely 
a flashy social association. 

Among the principles for which this organization 
stands, in addition to those already enumerated, are: sup¬ 
pression of graft by public officeholders; preventing the 
causes of mob-violence and lynching; sensible and pa¬ 
triotic immigration laws; separation of church and state 
and freedom of speech and press, a freedom of such that 


40 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


does not strike at or imperil our government or the cher¬ 
ished institutions of our people. 

If there be any white American citizen who owes al¬ 
legiance to no flag but the Star Spangled Banner and 
who cannot subscribe to and support these principles let 
him forever hold his peace, for he is basely unworthy of 
the great flag and its government that guarantees to him 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That person 
who actively opposes these great principles is a dangerous 
ingredient in the body politic of our country and an enemy 
to the weal of our national commonwealth. 

The Ku Klux Klan of today rides on, not upon the 
backs of faithful steeds, but in the mind, heart and soul 
of every true white American citizen who loves our great 
country and who glories in the name America, and who 
is honest enough as a grateful son to perpetually memo- 
ralize the heroism of our fathers and transmit the boon 
of our priceless heritage untarnished, uncorrupted and 
unstained to the generations who follow us that the luster 
of our age may increase in splendor. 

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, regardless of 
statements made to the contrary, either through ignorance 
or with deliberate intent to misrepresent it, has not made, 
is not now making and does not intend to make any fight 
on the Roman Catholic church as a religious institution, 
but it will unalterably and unequivocally oppose any move 
of the Catholic church or of any other church, individual 
or organization, which attempts to bring about a com¬ 
bination of church and state in the United States. 

The Ku Klux Klan does oppose the attitude of the 
Catholic church on our public school system, believing 
that the public schools as an institution should be pro¬ 
tected from its enemies regardless of who they may be. 

The Ku Klux Klan concedes to every man the right 
to worship God as he sees fit and in his own way, or to 
worship Him not at all, and while it adheres strictly to 
the tenets of the Christian religion it seeks no quarrel 


KU KLUX KLAN 


4i 


with individual or organization because of religious dif¬ 
ferences. 

In its attitude toward the large Jewish population of 
this country the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have 
played square. While its organizers were fully aware that 
there are thousands of Jewish citizens of the United 
States whose loyalty to the United States government is 
unquestioned and who believe in its principles and insti¬ 
tutions, it was decided to draw the line because no mem¬ 
ber of the Jewish faith, after he came into the organiza¬ 
tion, could be happy or contented with the fellowship he 
found on the inside for the very simple reason that the 
entire teaching of the order is that our present civiliza¬ 
tion rests upon the teachings of Jesus Christ. At every 
lodge meeting Jesus Christ is lauded and his teachings 
expounded and the constitution and regulations of the 
order set forth that the living Christ is the Klanman’s 
criterion of character. 

Therefore, even though many Jews could and would 
qualify for membership in this organization, it would 
have been unjust to allow the Jew to enter into fellow¬ 
ship with the organization by appealing to his patriotism 
and then have him cease to attend because every meeting 
would be out of harmony with his religious convictions. 

Thus the organization has deprived itself of a large 
body of members in its determination to “play the game 
square” with the Jew as well as the Gentile. We under¬ 
stand that the Jews in this country have their own pa¬ 
triotic organizations, through which loyalty to the United 
States government, its flag and all that it represents is 
constantly being instilled into the minds and hearts of the 
members of their race and with these organizations we 
are in thorough and hearty accord. 

The Ku Klux Klan is not the enemy of the negro. 
It opposes, and will continue to oppose, the efforts of 
certain negro organizations and periodicals which are 


42 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 

sowing the seeds of discontent and racial hatred among 
the negroes of this country by preaching and teaching 
social equality. We believe it is possible for the races to 
live together in peace and unity only upon condition that 
each race recognize the rights and privileges of the other. 
Yet we hold it is obligatory upon the negro race, and 
upon all other colored races in America to recognize that 
they are living in the land of the white race and by 
courtesy of the white race and that the white race can¬ 
not be expected to surrender to any other race, either in 
whole or in part, the control of its vital and fundamental 
governmental affairs. ^ 

There are rights which the negro race and all other 
colored races have as citizens of this country which the 
white race—the ruling race—is bound to respect, but 
they must not, individually or collectively, lose sight of 
the fact that the white race is the ruling race by right of 
inheritance and that it does not intend to surrender this 
right or to compromise it with any other race—black, 
red, yellow or brown. 

Let the negro race, and all other races living within 
our borders, advance and develop and prosper all that 
they may, but let it be done through their own institutions 
and within their own race without encroachment upon 
the rights of other races. Let them understand that in 
the long run the white man always has proved himself the 
truest friend and the safest counsellor of all other races 
in whatever land or clime the races have come in con¬ 
tact and let them not be misled by false prophets who, 
for personal gain, appeal to their passions and prejudices 
by wild promises that they know can never be fulfilled. 

The Ku Klux Klan is not anti-labor, as is proved by 
the fact that a large percentage of its membership is com¬ 
posed of union and non-union elements of labor in all 
parts of the United States. Neither is it anti-capital, un¬ 
less capital should become tyrannical in its attitude to the 
government of the United States or the people. 


43 


KU KLUX KLAN 

The organization is now extending its membership 
practically in every state and the combined increase in all 
states for several months has been approximately one 
thousand per day. 

The expense of the organization work is kept down 
to the minimum possible cost and all funds of the order 
are properly and honorably handled in a businesslike way, 
and the financial records are accurate and complete and 
subject to inspection at any time by any member or mem¬ 
bers of the organization. All persons handling funds of 
the order are under bond and no funds are paid out ex¬ 
cept upon approval of the proper official of each depart¬ 
ment of the work, the general funds of the order being 
subject to check only by the Imperial Treasurer and the 
Imperial Wizard. 

No official of the organization is profiting from the 
funds received by the organization and all money coming 
from the various Klans and as a result of profit on regalia 
is being put into a reserve fund or property for the finan¬ 
cial strengthening of the organization. Officials of the 
Ku Klux Klan are on salary and any member at any 
time can ascertain the exact amount of salaries paid. 
They are all reasonable and in most instances, in amounts 
considerably less than the same individuals could receive 
for the same work in commercial life. 

The home given to Colonel William Joseph Simmons, 
the Imperial Wizard, was the gift of the individual mem¬ 
bers of the Knights of ‘the Ku Klux Klan, the result of 
free-will offerings to the fund out of which it was pur¬ 
chased. Not a dollar of the funds of the order have gone 
into the cost of the home. As a matter of fact the com¬ 
mittee in charge of the gift still has some funds to raise 
to complete the payment. Most of the gifts to this fund 
were under $5. 

The organization quite recently has made two invest¬ 
ments, one of which was deemed absolutely essential to 
keep pace with the tremendous growth of the order and 
to handle its constantly increasing business, and the other 


44 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


a pronouncedly essential feature in its work of teaching 
ancl preaching real Americanism. 

The first was the purchase of a commodious building 
lot on Peachtree Road in Atlanta, Ga., to be used as the 
Imperial Palace, or national headquarters of the Knights 
of the Ku Klux Klan. The other was the purchase of 
Lanier University in Atlanta. 

Colonel Simmons was elected president of Lanier 
University with power to appoint a new Board of Trus¬ 
tees, representing all sections of the country. It has been 
conducted as a Baptist institution for several years but 
in the future will be non-denominational. It is co-edu- 
cational and its doors are open to the sons and daughters 
of all American citizens who believe that real Ameri¬ 
canism should be taught the youth of America. Students 
of Lanier University, regardless of what other courses 
they may take, are required to take a course on the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States and a course in Bible study. 

Degree Fees 

Membership in this order cannot be bought; it is given 
as a reward for service unselfishly rendered. If you 
really believe in the order, and will practice its principles, 
and conform to its regulations and usages and contribute 
the sum of $10 toward its propagation and can otherwise 
qualify, then membership is awarded you upon this ser¬ 
vice rendered and pledge of future fidelity to the institu¬ 
tion. This is not a selfish, mercenary, commercialized 
proposition, but the direct opposite. 

THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 
KNIGHTS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 
( Incorporated ) 

Objects and Purposes 
Article II 

Section i. The objects of this Order shall be—a common 
brotherhood of strict regulations for the purpose of cultivating 
and promoting real patriotism toward our Civil Government; to 


KU KLUX KLAN 


45 


practice an honorable clanishness toward each other; to ex¬ 
emplify a practical benevolence; to shield the sanctity of the 
home and the chastity of womanhood; to maintain white su¬ 
premacy; to teach and faithfully inculcate a high spiritual phi¬ 
losophy through an exalted ritualism, and by a practical devoted¬ 
ness to conserve, protect and maintain the distinctive institutions, 
rights, privileges, principles and ideals of a pure Americanism. 

Sec. 2. To create and maintain an institution by and through 
which the present and succeeding generations shall commemorate 
and memoralize the great sacrifice, chivalric service and patriotic 
achievements of our original Society—the Ku Klux Klan of the 
reconstruction period of American history. 

Sec. 3. This Order is an institution of chivalry, humanity, 
justice, and patriotism; embodying in its genius and principles 
all that is chivalric in conduct, noble in sentiment, generous in 
manhood and patriotic in purpose; its peculiar objects being: 
First —To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless, 
from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the 
violent and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to 
succor the suffering and unfortunate, especially worthy widows 
and orphans. Second —To protect and defend the Constitution 
of the United States of America, and all laws passed in con¬ 
formity thereto, and to protect the states and the people thereof 
from all invasion of their rights thereunder from any source 
whatsoever. Third —To aid and assist in the execution of all 
constitutional laws, and to preserve the honor and dignity of the 
state by opposing tyranny, in any and every degree attempted 
from any and every source whatsoever, by a fearless and faithful 
administration of justice; to promptly and properly meet every 
behest of Duty “without fear and without reproach.” 


IMPERIAL PROCLAMATION 1 

To All Nations, People, Tribes and Tongues, and to 
the Lovers of Law and Order, Peace and Justice, 
of the Whole Earth, Greeting: 

I, and the citizens of the Invisible Empire through me, pro¬ 
claim to you as follows,— 

We, the members of this Order desiring to promote real 
patriotism toward our Civil Government; honorable peace among 
men and nations; protection for and happiness in the homes of 
our people; love, real brotherhood, mirth and manhood among 
ourselves, and liberty, justice and fraternity among all mankind; 
and believing we can best accomplish these noble purposes 
through the channel of a high class mystic, social, patriotic, be r 
nevolent association, having a perfected lodge system, with an 

1 From A B C of the Ku Klux Klan. Ku Klux Klan Press, Atlanta, 
Georgia. 


46 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


exalted ritualistic form of work and an effective form of govern¬ 
ment, not for selfish profit but for the mutual betterment, benefit 
and protection of all our oath-bound associates, their welfare 
physically, socially, morally and vocationally and their loved ones; 
do 

Proclaim to the Whole World 

that we are dedicated to the sublime and pleasant duty of pro¬ 
viding generous aid, tender sympathy and fraternal assistance 
in the effulgence of the light of life and amid the sable shadows 
of death; amid fortune and misfortune, and to the exalted priv¬ 
ilege of demonstrating the practical utility of the great, yet most 
neglected, doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the Brother¬ 
hood of Man as a vital force in the lives and affairs of men. 

In this we invite all men who can qualify to become citizens 
of the Invisible Empire to approach the portal of our beneficent 
domain and join us in our noble work of extending its bound¬ 
aries; in disseminating the gospel of “Klankraft,” thereby en¬ 
couraging, conserving, protecting and making vital the fraternal 
human relationship in the practice of a wholesome clanishness; 
to share with us the glory of performing the sacred duty of 
protecting womanhood; to maintain forever white supremacy in 
all things; to commemorate the holy and chivalric achievements 
of our fathers; to safeguard the sacred rights, exalted priv¬ 
ileges and distinctive institutions of our Civil Government; to 
bless mankind, and to keep eternally ablaze the sacred fire of a 
fervent devotion to a pure Americanism. 

The Invisible Empire is founded on sterling character, and 
immutable principles based upon a most sacred sentiment and 
cemented by noble purposes; it is promoted by a sincere, 
unselfish devotion of the souls of manly men and is managed 
and governed by the consecrated intelligence of thoughtful 
brains. It is the soul of chivalry and virtue’s impenetrable 
shield; the devout impulse of an unconquered race. 

Done in the Aulic of His Majesty, the Imperial Wizard and 
Emperor of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 
in the Imperial Palace, in the Imperial City of Atlanta, Common¬ 
wealth of Georgia, United States of America, this the fourth 
day of July, Anno Domini Nineteen Hundred and Sixteen, Anno 
Klan L. 

Signed by His Majesty, 

William Joseph Simmons 
Imperial Wizard. 


DECLARATION 1 

WE SOLEMNLY DECLARE TO ALL MANKIND that the 
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, incorporated, is the original, 
genuine Ku Klux Klan organized in the year 1866, and active 

1 Taken from the Constitution of the Order officially adopted September 
29, 1916. 


KU KLUX ICLAN 


47 


during the Reconstruction period of American history; and by 
and under its new corporate name is revived, reconstructed, 
remodeled, refined and expanded into a fraternal, patriotic, 
ritualistic society of national scope, duly incorporated under the 
laws of the State of Georgia, in the years 1915 and 1916, for 
the same spiritual purposes as it originally had and more 
particularly as set forth in Article II, of the Constitution and 
Laws of the Society. 

WE DO FURTHER DECLARE TO THE WORLD that 
our original Prescript used as the governing law of the Ku Klux 
Klan, during the period of its former activities, and all official 
titles, mannerisms, usages and things therein prescribed have 
not been abandoned by us; but to the contrary all of such 
together with designs of paraphernalia, regalia, flags, banners, 
emblems, symbols or other insignia and things prescribed or 
previously used by or under the authority of the Ku Klux Klan 
are held sacred by us as a precious heritage; this precious 
heritage we shall jealously keep, forever maintain and valiantly 
protect from profanation. All of which are the property of the 
Ku Klux Klan under and by virtue of its now corporate name 
of Knights of Ku Klux Klan. 


KU KLUX KREED 1 


WE, THE ORDER of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 
reverentially acknowledge the majesty and supremacy of the 
Divine Being, and recognize the goodness and providence of the 
same. 

WE RECOGNIZE our relation to the Government of the 
United States of America, the Supremacy of its Constitution, 
the Union of States thereunder, and the Constitutional Laws 
thereof, and we shall be ever devoted to the sublime principles 
of a pure Americanism and valiant in the defense of its ideals 
and institutions. 

WE AVOW THE distinction between the races of mankind 
as same has been decreed by the Creator, and shall ever be true 
in the faithful maintenance of White Supremacy and will 
strenuously oppose any compromise thereof in any and all things. 

WE APPRECIATE the intrinsic value of a real practical 
fraternal relationship among men of kindred thought, purpose 
and ideals and the infinite benefits accruable therefrom, and 
shall faithfully devote ourselves to the practice of an honorable 
Clanishness that the life and living of each may be a constant 
blessing to others. 

1 Original Creed Revised. Ku Klux Klan Press, Atlanta, Georgia. 


48 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


WOMAN’S KLAN CREATED BY SIMMONS 1 

Declaring himself to be the founder, creator and su¬ 
preme head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and 
that he has at no time surrendered or partially surren¬ 
dered the reigns of government of the Invisible Empire, 
Colonel William Joseph Simmons, Emperor of the In¬ 
visible Empire for life, broke his silence of more than two 
years with a proclamation declaring the existence of the 
woman’s division of the Ku Klux Klan. 

Designating himself as “El Magus” and naming the 
woman’s division of the Klan the “Kamelia,” Colonel 
Simmons officially sets at rest the persistent rumors that 
he is no longer in control of the Klan and verifies the 
current rumors regarding the formation of the woman’s 
organization. 

The proclamation in part says: 

It was given to me, in the providence of Almighty God, with 
all of the limitations and restrictions of my humanity, to create 
by vision and to found in fact the Order of the Knights of the 
Ku Klux Klan. I have invested in the organization all that I 
have and all that I am so completely that nothing has been re¬ 
served. My life has been built into this great American institu¬ 
tion. Therefore there are certain rights of supervision and 
regulation and control residing and inhering in me, as the 
creator and founder of the organization, which I shall continue 
to exercise as long as mortal life shall last. 

In the course of human events the time has now come when 
the foundation shall be laid for the consummation of the other 
part of my early vision. 

Always in my dream of a great renewal of Americanism and 
the reclamation of all that we have lost by alien and enemy in¬ 
vasion, there was the contemplation of a great woman’s organi¬ 
zation, adhering to the same principles, committed to the same 
purposes and impelled by the same motives as to organization 
as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. For a considerable period 
the demand upon me for an organization of women has increased 
until the demand has become a clamor from well-nigh every 
section of the United States. 

A response to the appeal of the earnest, devoted, patriotic 
women of America cannot be longer deferred. They must 
take their place alongside the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan 

1 New York Journal. March 23, 1923. 


KU KLUX KLAN 


49 


and cooperate with them in all of their worthy movements and 
coordinate their activities with all of their noble enterprises, 
helping to save the white man’s civilization on the American 
continent and thereby saving the white man’s civilization 
throughout the world. 

It is my peculiar privilege and honor and one of the 
proudest moments of my life, now and here to proclaim the 
creation and the foundation of the woman’s organization to be 
known as Kamelia, and in making this proclamation, to declare 
as the founder and creator of the Kamelia my official designa¬ 
tion and title to be “El Magus.” 


ICU KLUX KLAN IN AMERICA 1 

The widespread belief that the purpose and policy of 
the Klan is violently to take the law in its own hands 
and run the country is not well founded. There have 
been instances of Klan violence in isolated sections, and 
Klansmen undoubtedly participated in an unusually re¬ 
volting murder recently in Louisiana, but there is no 
reason to think that these things would not have occurred 
had there been no Klan. It is also true that in some 
states—particularly Georgia, Texas and Arkansas—a 
number of state officials have joined the Klan, and it is 
also true that in these states the politicians are seizing 
the opportunity which secret membership gives them to 
array on their side the religiously prejudiced voters. But 
it is also true that the business men who are running the 
organization are actively and earnestly interested in keep¬ 
ing its skirts free of lawlessness. Obviously, it is to their 
selfish interest to do so. Ultimately the kind of policy 
attributed to the Klan by the more violent of the news¬ 
papers would involve it with the federal government in 
such a way as to break it up. 

The fact is, the meetings of the Klan are of a deeply 
religious and patriotic character, and the rank and file 
of its membership is made up of narrow-minded but 
well-meaning men, who believe they are helping to “save 

1 From article by Frank R. Kent, Vice-President of the Baltimore Sun. 
Spectator. 130 : 279-80. February 17, 1923. 


50 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


the country.” There is, in the vast bulk of them, no more 
possibility of violence than there would be in so many 
rabbits. Mostly, they are members of the same evangeli¬ 
cal churches that support the Anti-Saloon League, and 
the Klan ritual, the fiery cross, the mask and the gown, 
the solemnity and secrecy of their gatherings, give them 
a veritable glow of self-righteousness, a smug feeling of 
rectitude, a cheap and entirely safe thrill. The wearing 
of the mask at the meetings is a part of the Simmons 
ritualistic tomfoolery, and its only sinister feature is the 
opportunity it affords ruffians in rural districts to use 
the Klan as a cloak and commit outrages in its name. 

If there were space, I would like more deeply to 
analyse the psychology of the average Klan member and 
show exactly how the Kleagle baits the hook for him. 
All that can be done in this article, however, is to give 
certain conclusions, based on a somewhat thorough in¬ 
vestigation, of the Klan situation made in a number of 
f southern states where it is strongest. They are these: 
^ First, the men who run the Klan in Atlanta arc an ex¬ 
ceedingly “hard boiled” set of fellows who have placed it 
on a well-camouflaged but wholly commercial basis and 
are making a great deal of money out of it. They operate 
a non-sentimental selling organization and sell the Klan 
to “prospects” just as they would sell safety razors, in¬ 
surance policies, garters or any other article) 'Second, 
the membership of the Klan is composed largely of well- 
meaning persons, who feel very much more deeply than 
they think, who have no sense of humour, but who are 
neither vicious nor dangerous. Third, the danger of the 
thing lies not so much in the Klan itself as in the screen 
it affords to politicians to profit through the religious 
issue and the temptation it offers to rough elements out¬ 
side, and sometimes inside, to use the mask in violent 
outbreaks. Fourth, if the newspapers would cease daily 
denouncing the Klan, and if the Catholics and Jews were 
less excited and apprehensive concerning it, the organiza- 


KU KLUX KLAN 


5i 


tion would break of its own weight, because it is unsound 
at the bottom and uninformed and ignorant at the top. 

SOME IDEALS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 1 

1 . The Character of the Organization 

And here it is necessary to repeat briefly some things 
with which you are already familiar. 

1 . This is a white mans organization, exalting the 
Caucasian race and teaching the doctrine of white su¬ 
premacy. This does not mean that we are enemies of the 
colored and mongrel races. But it does mean that we are 
organized to establish the solidarity and to realize the 
mission of the white race. All of Christian civilization 
depends upon the preservation and upbuilding of the 
white race, and it is the mission of the Ku Klux Klan to 
proclaim this doctrine until the white race shall come into 
its own. 

2 . This is a gentile organization, and as such has as 
its mission the interpretation of the highest ideals of the 
white, Gentile peoples. We sing no hymns of hate against 
the Jew. He is interested in his own things and we are 
exercising the same privilege of banding our own kind 
together in order that we may realize the highest and best 
possible for ourselves. 

3 . It is an American organization, and we do restrict 
membership to native-born American citizens. The rec¬ 
ords show that recently, at least, the aliens who have 
been flooding our land have come into this country, not 
because of any love for America, but, because of intol¬ 
erable or unfavorable conditions in the land they left be¬ 
hind. They come to this country, not that they may con¬ 
tribute in any way to its growth and development, but 
that they may find opportunity to advance themselves and 

1 By William James Mahoney, Imperial Klokard, Knights of the Ku 
Klux Klan. 


52 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


to serve their own interests. They are here to serve the in¬ 
terests of the land from which they came, regardless of 
the interests of this land in which they make their homes 
and seek their fortunes. They come to obey the mandates 
of governments of which they are still the subjects, even 
to the extent of endeavoring to break down the govern¬ 
ment under which they find protection while seeking their 
nefarious ends. In their hearts there is the tie that still 
binds them to the home-land; to them it is still the father- 
land. Their sympathies are still there; their thoughts 
have been shaped by the currents in the old country. 
They do not easily re-adjust themselves. Thus we find the 
groups: Irish-Americans, German-Americans, and all 
kinds of hyphenated Americans. What pleasure would 
they find or what service could they render in this or¬ 
ganization which is distinctively an American-American 
organization? We have organized to engender a real 
spirit of true Americanism—that Americanism which is 
a system based on a principle of utter antagonism to 
monarchism, whether represented by emperor, king, po¬ 
tentate, or pope. 

4 . It is a Protestant organization. Membership is 
restricted to those who accept the tenets of true Chris¬ 
tianity, which is essentially Protestant. We maintain and 
contend that it is the inalienable right of Protestants to 
have their own distinctive organization. We can say to 
the world without apology, and say truly, that our fore¬ 
fathers founded this as a Protestant country and that it 
is our purpose to re-establish and maintain it as such. 
While we will energetically maintain and proclaim the 
principles of Protestantism, we will also maintain the 
principles of religious liberty as essential to the life and 
progress of this nation, and we will vigorously oppose 
all efforts to rob the American people of this right. 

II. Racial Ideals 

1 . We stand for white supremacy. Distinction among 
the races is not accidental but designed. This is clearly 


KU KLUX KLAN 


53 


brought out in the one book that tells authoritatively of 
the origin of the races. This distinction is not incidental, 
but is of the vastest import and indicates the wisdom of 
the divine mind. It is not temporary but is as abiding as 
the ages that have not yet ceased to roll. The supremacy 
of the white race must be maintained, or be overwhelmed 
by the rising tide of color. 

2 . We must keep this a white man's country. Only 
by doing this can we be faithful to the foundations laid 
by our forefathers. 

a. This republic was established by white men. 

b. It was established for white men. 

c. Our forefathers never intended that it should fall 
into the hands of an inferior race. 

d. Every effort to wrest from white men the man¬ 
agement of its affairs in order to transfer it to the con¬ 
trol of blacks or any other color, or to permit them to 
share in its control, is an invasion of our sacred constitu¬ 
tional prerogatives and a violation of divinely estab¬ 
lished laws. Every effort to wrest from the white man 
the control of this country must be resisted. No person 
of the white race can submit to such efforts without 
shame. One of the sad facts in American political life is 
the readiness of so many politicians to sell their noble 
white birthright for a mess of black pottage. They would 
betray their race in order to win a few black votes. 

e. We would not rob the colored population of their 
right, but we demand that they respect the rights of the 
white race in whose country they are permitted to reside. 
When it comes to the point that they cannot and will not 
recognize and respect those rights, they must be reminded 
that this is a white man’s country, so that they will seek 
for themselves a country more agreeable to their tastes 
and aspirations. 

f. Purity of the white blood must be maintained. 
One of the crying evils of the times is the mixture of 
white blood with that of negro. Thi$ evil has gone on 
since Colonial days until perhaps more than half of the 


54 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


negroes in the United States have some degree of white 
blood flowing in their veins. This condition is not only 
biologically disastrous but is giving rise to grave social 
problems. Mulatto leaders who, under present social con¬ 
ditions, are forced to remain members of the negro 
group and who aspire to white association because of 
their white blood are boldly preaching racial equality in 
all of its phases. The guilt for this state of affairs rests 
upon those members of the white race who have betrayed 
their own kind and bartered their own blood. It has be¬ 
come necessary to devise some means for the preservation 
of the white blood in its purity, because, despite pro¬ 
hibitive laws, racial inter-mixture is continuing and the 
problem of mixed blood is becoming more and more 
acute. 

III. Citizenship Ideals 

1 . Development of the highest standard of citizen¬ 
ship. We ourselves must come to know what it means 
to be citizens of the foremost nation in all the earth. We 
need to have knowledge of the privileges and responsi¬ 
bilities and glories of our citizenship. And we need to be 
under the necessity of exercising our citizenship intel¬ 
ligently. We must learn and practice these things in or¬ 
der that we may teach them to others. 

2 . Rightful use of the ballot. Thank God, the day 
of partisan politics is past! Time was when parties stood 
for great principles. But today the difference between 
them is that of “tweedledum and tweedledee.” One of 
the parties must be induced to champion great funda¬ 
mental American principles that will hasten the develop¬ 
ment of our country, or else a new party must come into 
being. As the matter now stands we must cast our bal¬ 
lots for the right as it is most nearly represented and 
championed by men regardless of party. 

3 . We stand for the enforcement of law by the regu¬ 
larly constituted authorities. This order does not take 


KU KLUX KLAN 


55 


the law into its own hands and will not tolerate acts of 
lawlessness on the part of its members. Any man of any 
color or creed who charges the Ku Klux Klan with being 
an organization which fosters and perpetrates acts of 
lawlessness and deeds of violence is either wilfully blind 
or is a malicious, slandering, lying fool who, because of 
some inborn prejudice, seeks to destroy an organization 
that is law-abiding, and that demands the enforcement of 
laws by those who have been duly elected to office. We 
are within our rights as American citizens when we de¬ 
mand of men who are put in offices of trust that they 
shall faithfully perform the duties of their offices. It is 
quite evident that those who oppose us on this principle 
do not want the laws of our country enforced, and are 
seeking to cover their anarchistic spirit by impugning 
our motives and imputing criminality to us. 

IV. Patriotic Ideals 

The men of this order stand for the purest and most 
practical type of patriotism toward our great and glorious 
country. 

1 . We take our stand upon the Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence as the basis of popular government. This docu¬ 
ment denies the dogma of despots, that kings rule by di¬ 
vine right. It asserts that governments derive their just 
powers from the consent of the governed. It solemnly 
affirms the right of the American people to govern them¬ 
selves as a free and independent nation—independent of 
all outside sovereignty and control. 

2 . We believe in upholding the Constitution of the 
United States. This document reduces to practice the 
precepts of the Declaration and must be recognized as 
the supreme law of the land. It guarantees that liberty 
which must be cherished as the precious heritage of the 
American people. It establishes the freedom of institu¬ 
tions dear to the American heart. It guarantees religious 


56 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


liberty, freedom of speech and of press, and all the rights 
that pertain to the people who constitute this nation. It 
depicts ideals and defines institutions that must be made 
real and kept secure. The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan 
are sworn by a solemn oath to uphold and defend this 
immortal Constitution. 

3 . Allegiance. We teach that the citizen’s first and 
highest allegiance is to the government of the United 
States. No other government, potentate, or person of any 
kind shall share in this allegiance. We maintain that a 
divided allegiance means no allegiance. There can be no 
half American, and any sort of hyphen absolutely makes 
impossible any kind of loyalty to the American govern¬ 
ment, its ideals and institutions. 

4 . We stand for the American flag against enemies 
without and within. We emphasize devotion to the flag 
of our country as the ensign of our American Nationality 
and the emblem of our national honor. A man stands 
wholly for the Stars and Stripes or else to him his coun¬ 
try’s flag is only a dirty rag. We insist that no flag shall 
fly above our flag, and that no flag shall float by its side. 

5 . Neither domestic traitors nor foreign foes of any 
kind shall be permitted to destroy this nation. 

6 . None shall be allowed to circumscribe the influ¬ 
ence and hinder the progress of American institutions on 
this continent. And this involves the welfare and devel¬ 
opment of the public school system. To those who seek 
to undermine or destroy this American institution we say, 
“hands off,” and we will defend this institution against 
every enemy, whether it be political or ecclesiastical. 

V. Christian Ideals 

1 . We magnify the Bible—as the basis of our Con¬ 
stitution, the foundation of our government, the source 
of our laws, the sheet-anchor of our liberties, the most 
practical guide of right living, and the source of all true 
wisdom. 


KU KLUX ICLAN 


57 


2. We teach the worship of God. For we have in 
mind the divine command, “Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God.” 

3. We honor the Christ, as the Klansman’s only cri¬ 
terion of character. And we seek at His hands that 
cleansing from sin and impurity, which only He can give. 

4. We believe that the highest expression of life is 
in service and in sacrifice for that which is right; that 
selfishness can have no place in a true Klansman’s life 
and character; but that he must be moved by unselfish 
motives, such as characterized our Lord the Christ and 
moved Him to the highest service and the supreme sacri¬ 
fice for that which was right. 

I have but suggested here a few of the many ideals 
of the Ku Klux Klan. Let us seek to make these real in 
our life and practice so that we may become bright, true 
Klansmen, and be ready for other ideals and principles as 
they shall be presented from time to time. 

VIEW OF KLAN FROM INSIDE 1 

View of Klan from inside presented below by Edward 
Young Clarke, Grand Wizard pro tern: 

With at least 8o per cent of the newspapers of the country 
bitterly attacking the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan upon every 
conceivable angle, augmented by the desperate efforts of mis¬ 
guided philanthropists, political charioteers, and certain religious 
and racial groups who have nothing in common with Anglo- 
Saxon ideals, this purely American order is not only holding 
its own, but enjoying phenomenal growth. 

Arguments against the Klan are invariably based upon false 
premises. For instance, there is the oft-repeated charge that 
this organization metes out justice from its own tribunals, an 
allegation that has never been proven. Another accusation, 
popular with the anti-Klan forces, is that the sole purpose of 
the order is to feed the fires of racial and religious hatred. 
Again, the public is led to believe that this institution is made 
up of fanatics, degenerates, brigands, and every sort of enemy 
to society. We are socialists or anti-socialists, reformers or 
law-breakers, “wet” or “dry,” religious or sacriligious, depending 
upon the personal sentiments of our accuser. 

1 Literary Digest. 74 : 51-2. August 5, 1922. 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


58 


We are denounced because, by right of our sacred inheritance, 
we glory in wearing the regalia of the original Ku Klux Klan 
as a memorial to that dauntless organization of the reconstruc¬ 
tion days. The unthinking public condemns us for our strategy 
in lighting secrecy with secrecy. They censure us because we 
are sworn to safeguard the welfare and the noble blood of the 
Caucasian race, to preserve the traditions of the Republic, to 
propagate our Christian faith! And it is surely significant 
that the most violent opposition emanates from racial and re 
ligious groups who have nothing in common with those 
principles. 

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan do not expect to have 
their principles and working policies universally approved. 
Every cause has its worthiness questioned. Every issue has its 
proponents and opponents. But every movement that claims a 
worthy motive is certainly entitled to fair play, and the Knights 
of the Ku Klux Klan are no exception. 

Opposition to this organization is mainly psychological. It 
is made up of senseless inhibitions and the associations of ideas. 
No person has yet presented a logical reason as to why a secret 
organization sworn to uphold the law, to propagate Christianity, 
and to perpetuate American ideals, should not exist. I say that 
no person has done this, unless, of course, he ignores the most 
vital urges known to man—self-preservation and the safeguard¬ 
ing of the home. 

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan owe their tremendous 
growth, not to the efforts of professional organizers, but to its 
individual members. Those who have crossed the portals of the 
Invisible Empire have found there a great human machine, whose 
ideals are an inspiration to any God-fearing Christian, and 
whose ranks are peopled with sane, intelligent and honest men. 

The modern Klan is not, as our enemies charge, a revival 
of Knownothingism. It is not a political party, it will take no 
part in political controversies, and it has nothing to do with 
partizan issues. Klansmen will follow the dictates of their 
individual conscience in casting their votes. As an organization, 
we have no candidates—no favored party. 

This organization came into existence as an honest attempt 
to solve certain well-defined problems concerning the interest 
of those whose forefathers established the nation. It is this 
force of things, this necessity for national solidarity which has 
brought the Klan into being. 


DEFENSE OE THE ICU KLUX KLAN 1 

This editor (of Shuler’s Magazine) has repeatedly 
affirmed privately and publicly that he is not a member 

1 Literary Digest. 76 : r8-i9. January 20, 1923. 


ICU KLUX KLAN 


59 


of the Ku Klux or any other secret organization. But 
when it comes to secret societies, he sees no difference 
absolutely between the Ku Klux and many others, the 
Knights of Columbus, for instance. The Knights of Co¬ 
lumbus has an oath, just as binding, or more so, than the 
Ku Klux oath. Moreover, the Knights of Columbus’ oath 
is not one-half so American as is the Ku Klux. If you 
charge that the Ku Klux has put over mobs, I answer 
that the Knights of Columbus has put over two mobs to 
where any other secret organization on earth has ever 
put over one. 

This editor has been favored recently by being per¬ 
mitted to look over documentary evidence as to the tenets, 
principles and aims of the Ku Klux Klan. He finds that 
this organization stands with positive emphasis for Amer¬ 
icanism as opposed to foreign idealism; for the principles 
of the Christian religion as opposed to Roman Catholicism 
and infidelity; for the American public schools and for 
the placing of the Holy Bible in the schoolrooms of this 
nation; for the enforcement of the laws upon the statute 
books and for a wholesome respect for the Constitution 
of the United States; for the maintenance of virtue 
among American women, sobriety and honor among 
American men, and for the eradication of all agencies 
and influences that would threaten the character of our 
children. So the principles of the Klan are not so damna¬ 
ble as pictured, it would seem. 

This organization is opposing the most cunning, de¬ 
ceitful and persistent enemy that Americanism and Prot¬ 
estant Christianity have ever had—the Jesuits. Speaking 
of “invisible empires,” of forces that creep through the 
night and do their dirty work under cover, influences 
that are set going in the secret places of darkness, the 
Jesuits are the finished product. They have burned, 
killed, defamed, blackmailed, and ruined their enemies by 
the hundreds. History reeks with it. Tho I disagree with 
the logic of the Klan, the members of that organization 


6o 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


declare that they can only fight such a foe by using his 
own fire. 

As to the charge that the Ku Klux Ivlan has func¬ 
tioned in mob violence in their efforts to correct condi¬ 
tions, I have this to say: I am convinced that most of the 
mobs reported have not been ordered and directed by 
the Klan as an organization. I am moreover convinced 
that many of them have been put over by forces opposed 
to the Klan and for the purpose of seeking to place the 
guilt for mob rule upon the Klan. The most of these mobs 
have been, according to investigation, not Ku Klux mobs 
at all, but gatherings of indignant citizens, bent on cor¬ 
recting conditions that the officers of the law refused to 
correct. The way to cause the Ku Klux to retire from 
the field is for the officers of the law to take that field and 
occupy it. 

The Ku Klux has the same right to exist so long as 
it obeys the law that any other organization has. We have 
not heard of any investigation of the Knights of Colum¬ 
bus, altho the un-American oaths are historic and their 
mob activities have been repeatedly published and her¬ 
alded from platforms far and near. 


LAW-ABIDING ORDER 1 

The Imperial Wizard in a full-page advertisement in 
the New York Herald says: 

There is nothing in the Constitution of the order that any 
honorable, law-abiding, conscientious, clean-hearted, and pure- 
spirited, ioo per cent American could not swear to and uphold. 
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan does not encourage or foster 
lawlessness, racial prejudice, or religious intolerance and is not 
designed to act in the capacity of a law-enforcement or moral- 
correction agency except in so far as the members of the organi¬ 
zation as citizens may be able to assist the regular officers of the 
law in the apprehending of criminals and the upholding and 
sustaining of the majesty of the law and the honor and integrity 
of the Stars and Stripes and the Constitution of the United 

1 Literary Digest. August 27, 1921. 


ICU ICLUX KLAN 


61 


States of America. To the above every member entering the 
portals of this organization has been sworn under the most 
binding and solemn oath, and any act or word contrary to the 
above statement by any Klansman is a violation of his oath and 
puts him beyond the pale of fellowship in the organization and 
makes him an outlaw not only in the eyes of the law of the 
land, but in the eyes of his former fellow Klansmen, as a 
violation of oath of any Klansman automatically banishes him 
from this organization. 

I hereby declare and pronounce the present attempt to fasten 
upon this organization acts of lawlessness to be the attempt of 
our enemies to discredit the organization, and the further our 
investigation goes into every particular incident of lawlessness 
which has been charged against us the more convinced I am that 
the present wave of criticism passing through the press is a con¬ 
certed move on the part of our enemies in an attempt to prej¬ 
udice the public in regard to our work. 

In conclusion, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a law- 
abiding, legally chartered, standard fraternal order, designed 
to teach and inculcate the purest ideals of American citizenship, 
with malice toward none and justice to every citizen regardless 
of race, color, or creed. 


FOES OF KU KLUX 1 

Who are the enemies of the Klan? First of all, there 
is the Roman Catholic church, against which we have di¬ 
rected no attack and upon which we now make no war. 
The Roman Catholic church has a right to found and 
maintain itself for the promulgation of its distinctive re¬ 
ligious tenets on American soil, and so long as that insti¬ 
tution confines itself to activities that belong distinctively 
to a religious organization its rights under the American 
flag, guaranteed by the Constitution, can never be invaded 
or even questioned. 

But when the Roman Catholic church interferes with 
our fundamental principle of separation of church and 
state, when it interferes with rights guaranteed in the 
Constitution of free speech and the right of peaceable 
assembly, when it undertakes to usurp any of the powers 
or functions of government, when it undertakes in any 

1 From address of H. W. Evans, Imperial Wizard of Dallas, Texas. 
New York Times. December 7, 1922. 


62 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


wise to make the United States of America a province 
of Rome, then the institution has challenged the white, 
native-born Protestant Christian of America to defend 
this republic against invasion or else surrender the re¬ 
public to the domination of the foreign ecclesiastical po¬ 
tentate. 

He asserted that the Jewish race was allied with the 
Catholics in successive assaults on the Klan “because the 
Jew in America sees in the rise and extension of Klanish- 
ness an arrest placed upon his activities in money getting. 

The Jew produces nothing anywhere on the face of 
the earth. He does not till the soil. He does not create 
or manufacture anything for common use. He adds 
nothing to the sum of human welfare. Everywhere he 
stands between the producer and the consumer and 
sweats the toil of the one and the necessity of the other 
for his gains. 


THE KU KLUX KLAN LAW 1 

There is a federal law against Ku Klux Klanism. It 
was passed in 1871 after Congress had investigated the 
white riders and their activities. This law calls night¬ 
riding “rebellion.” It makes it a “high crime” to “go 
upon the highways or upon the premises of another with 
the intent to deprive any person of the protection of the 
law; to hinder state authorities from providing such pro¬ 
tection of the law; to hinder state authorities from pro¬ 
viding such protection; to impede the course of justice 
in any manner.” 

President Grant was, and other presidents likewise 
are, authorized by this law to employ the army and navy, 
if necessary, to restore order in any state where “rebel¬ 
lion” exists, if the local authorities fail to protect citizens 
from offenses of marauders. The president may suspend 

1 By William G. Shepherd. Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Magazine 
133 : 34o September io, 1921. 


ICU ICLUX KLAN 


63 


the writ of habeas corpus in any state where local officials 
cannot preserve the peace against “rebellion.” No person 
may act as a juror in a case against a member of the 
forbidden “combination or conspiracy” who cannot swear 
that he has not been a member of the organization. All 
cases, under the law, are to be tried in federal courts. 
Any person who has knowledge that an offense is com¬ 
mitted, and does not notify the authorities, can be fined 
$5,000, the money to go to the widow, or next-of-kin, 
of the person losing his life in “such outrage.” 

The penalty for Ku Klux Klanism, though the law 
does not specifically mention the Ku Klux Klan, is a fine 
of from $500 to $5,000; imprisonment, with or without 
hard labor, for six months to six years. Injured persons 
may also collect damages from the guilty parties. 


INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT 1 

If there is one thing more than another that Ameri¬ 
cans require of their political affairs, it is that they should 
be open, aboveboard, and discussable by all. Invisible 
government and secret influences form the antithesis to 
democracy. We have and will maintain freedom of 
speech and of the press, subject only to the apothegm 
stated the other day in these columns, “Personal liberty 
ends where public injury begins.” 

The most moderate program put forth by defenders of 
the revived Ku Klux Klan shows its purpose to influence 
legislation, public opinion, and political elections. It has 
a right to do all this if it acts openly and fairly. It has 
no right to work secretly by underground methods to in¬ 
flame racial and religious prejudice in order to bring 
about political or legislative action. If one says this to a 
defender of the Klan, he replies, “Well, the Knights of 
Columbus do the same thing.” We have seen no evidence 


1 Outlook. 132 : 643. December 13, 1922. 


64 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


of this; but, if it is so, then that or any other organiza¬ 
tion so acting is subject to precisely the same criticism. 
Meanwhile it is notorious and self-evident that the Klan 
cunningly tries to twist into one cord the three hateful 
strands of anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, and anti-negro pre¬ 
judice. Help yourself, in effect the Klan says, to your 
own special hatred! All this is distinctly un-American. 

There is no objection to secret societies in themselves. 
Any one can name off-hand several that are admirable 
as sources of social enjoyment, of mutual benefit, of fra¬ 
ternal benevolence. Ceremony and ritual are attractive to 
many people, and it is true that many secret societies are 
not merely harmless, but beneficial. Yet, in order that 
the worthy associations should not be confounded with 
the objectionable, it is at least desirable that all should 
be registered with the state authorities and the names of 
their responsible officers be available for purposes of in¬ 
quiry. Emphatically this is desirable in the case of an 
organization like the Ku Klux Klan, founded originally 
as an instrument of terrorism, and lately revived in an 
effort to foster race and religious animosity and to throw 
the influence of its secretly banded members on this or 
that side of a political issue. We are not permitted to 
know when and why the Klan’s influence is thus exerted, 
and in such a situation fair discussion is impossible. Just 
lately, for instance, one newspaper correspondent re¬ 
marked : 

One of the surprises of this year’s election was the success 
of a candidate for Governor of Oregon, with Ku Klux support, 
and the adoption by the voters of that state of a law designed 
to do away with all private schools and all parochial schools at 
which a feature of the teaching is instruction in religious matters. 

It may be that the Ku Klux Klan was influential in 
the election of a governor in Oregon and in the adoption 
of the school law—and it may not; how can we tell what 
an oath-bound society has done? The same thing applies 
to the election of Senator Mayfield in Texas, “said to 
be” due to Klan efforts. We don’t want “said to be” in 


ICU KLUX KLAN 


65 


American political life, we want open politics as well as 
open diplomacy. 

NATION-WIDE FIGHT ON KLAN 1 

The Klan will be wrecked by the exposure of its per¬ 
sonnel, Mr. Rutledge of the American Unity League said 
at the Hotel McAlpin last evening. 

We intend to publish the names of the New York 
City Klansmen, for our experience in Chicago has dem¬ 
onstrated to 11 s that the sure way to kill the Klan is by 
publishing the names of the individual members. 

This is so, because the individual Klansman fears pub¬ 
lic sentiment, and as soon as he becomes known as a 
Klansman he resigns or ceases his activities. So far we 
have not only had no libel action against us in Chicago 
for the publication of a name wrongfully, but there has 
not been one case in which it was established that we had 
published a name through error. 

Scores of Klansmen are coming to our Chicago of¬ 
fices every day to ask what they can do to keep their 
names from being published. We have told each of these 
men to send in his resignation and get it accepted by the 
King Kleagle of the Realm of Illinois, and his name 
would not be published. A great many resignations from 
the Klan have come about in this way. 

When we began the publication of the names of Klans¬ 
men in Chicago, the Klan, according to our information, 
had a membership of about fifty-five thousand. Now it 
has dropped to about ten thousand. The Unity League 
was established about seven months ago and started the 
publication of the names after three months of prelim¬ 
inary work. 

The publication of the names of Klansmen will be 
only part of the work to be done by the league through¬ 
out the country. The league will approach Congress and 

1 New York Times. December 7, 1922. 


66 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


the Legislatures of states in which it is organized and 
ask for the enactment of laws against masked organiza¬ 
tions. 

No member of the Ku Klux Klan can hold office in 
the United States without being guilty of treason. The 
oath of allegiance that the Ku Kluxer takes to his Em¬ 
peror” makes it impossible for him to be true to the gov¬ 
ernment of the United States. 

Our entire program being one of education and the 
creation of better feeling between the several racial and 
religious groups making up America, we do not fight the 
Klansman with his own weapons, social, commercial and 
political boycott, but we do make it unpopular to be af¬ 
filiated with the Klan by showing members and prospects 
the dangerous activities of the organization. 


WHY OF THE KU KLUX 1 

Sir: Suppress the Ku Klux? By all means, but while 
we are suppressing it we need to discover the cause. Are 
there reasons for the rise of such movements? Is the 
Ku Klux the outward manifestation of an inner poison 
and will the body politic be permanently cured only when 
the disease is healed ? 

There are many features of this evil, but two espe¬ 
cially serious ones can be named. First, throughout all 
classes there is a growing scepticism of democracy, espe¬ 
cially of the current American brand. Many Americans 
believe that there is little even-handed justice admin¬ 
istered in the courts; that a poor man has little chance 
against a rich one; that many judges practically buy their 
places on the bench or are put there by powerful interests. 
The strong, able young man comes out of college ready 
to do his part in politics, but with the settled conviction 
that unless he can give full time there is no use “bucking 

1 By Mary W. Herring, New Republic. 33 : 289. February 7, 1923. 


KU KLUX KLAN 


67 


up against the machine.” Furthermore he believes the 
machines to be equally corrupt. “The miner in West 
Virginia sees the power of the state enlisted on the side 
of the mine owner. The citizens of New York, Chicago 
and Boston are under the bondage of corrupt machines 
working through Hylan, Thompson and Curley. The 
young officer sent to Washington for office duty during 
the war came back with the belief that graft prevailed 
everywhere. Men are asking whether perhaps after all 
autocracy is not better than democracy. They feel help¬ 
less to meet existing conditions. Many would like to be 
good citizens but do not know how to make any headway 
against the machine. 

There is an ominous lack of good leadership. Most 
men of ability and character are unwilling to make the 
necessary sacrifices required in accepting office. In con¬ 
sequence the inferior or the corrupt often take the places 
left vacant through the others’ evasion of duty. 

When law breaks down, lynch law takes its place. The 
tyranny of the corrupt politician is replaced by the 
tyranny of mob rule. A mob has many parts: it may 
have a nucleus of honest-minded people, who genuinely 
believe that only in this way can justice be attained. The 
Fascisti in Italy and the Ku Klux in this country have 
much in common—loyalty to the best interests of the 
country is loudly proclaimed, while their aims are pro¬ 
moted by violence and tyranny. Training in the ranks of 
the better elements are the suspicious and the violent— 
the haters and the mischief-makers. Ignorance is always 
an easy victim of fear and suspicion, and such a move¬ 
ment among the unintelligent may start a blaze not easily 
put out. 

We may cease to fear movements of this kind only 
when America becomes a law-abiding country; when our 
courts are above suspicion; when the rights of free 
speech and opinion are restored, when the rich and the 
poor become equal before the courts—when our govern- 


68 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


ments in nation, state, city and town become honest. If 
we will not take the laborious path of faithful citizenship 
—if good and able men and women will not consent to 
lead us, then once in so often these short cuts to justice 
will be taken. 

A second element of this national disease is the pres¬ 
ence of large organizations which under the sanction of 
religion are permitted to gather great stores of money 
which are secretly collected and secretly disbursed. Every 
year new pressure is put upon business and politics to 
publish a report of all money handled. Newberry could 
have passed ten years ago more easily than he can today. 
Great business corporations are finding it increasingly 
difficult to keep their books from the questioning eyes of 
the public. The mine operators will soon have to reveal 
their gains to the world. 

Secrecy always breeds suspicion. The fear and sus¬ 
picion felt of the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches 
is based largely on their unwillingness to report receipts 
and expenditures. People have no disposition to control 
their beliefs; we are all too anxious to have freedom for 
ourselves, but they do object to such stores of treasure 
being held by strong organizations endowed with the 
added power of religious authority. How is this money 
used ? Does it shape our public schools, determine the con¬ 
tents of the public libraries, elect senators, congressmen, 
and justices of the Supreme Court? Does it prevent the 
formation of a department of education at Washington? 
Does this money give the Mormon church the balance of 
power in a presidential election and control business which 
in turn affects the national welfare? No organization, 
religious or secular, should be permitted to close its books 
against state inspection. If it is doing nothing of which 
it need be ashamed it will not wish to do so. Religious 
and charitable institutions should be above suspicion. We 
believe that a “state cannot exist half slave and half 


KU KLUX KLAN 


69 


free.” Do we also realize that it cannot survive half 
democratic and half autocratic? If the Mormon and 
Roman Catholic churches wish to have peace and friendly 
relations with their neighbors, let them come out frankly 
and open their books. So long as this secrecy lasts sus¬ 
picion and fear will last. So long as this suspicion and 
fear last there will be a festering sore in our body politic 
and such freakish and often criminal organizations as 
the Ku Klux will be the outer manifestation of this inner 
poison. Honest government and publicity in the handling 
of money are vital conditions of public health. 


KU KLUX AN INDICTMENT OF LOCAL 
OFFICERS 1 

Judge Hamilton is exactly right. The rise of the Ku 
Klux Klan is the effort of citizens to secure redress for 
the refusal of officers to enforce the law and that, too, 
by direct action. Wherever the Ku Klux Klan operates 
it is a clear indication that some public officers, not neces¬ 
sarily all of them, have previously violated their oath of 
office in refusing to enforce the law. 

Judge Hamilton goes on to say, “The Constitution 
of this state says the defendant has the right of trial by 
a jury of his peers under the supervision of the court.” 
Here, again, Judge Hamilton is right. But, have not the 
citizens of the state an equal right to demand that the 
criminal shall be tried by a jury of his peers? We think 
so. But by the laws of Texas an officer can decide 
whether or not the criminal shall be punished or not, and 
the citizenship have no redress except through the Ku 
Klux Klan. 

Judge Hamilton further says, “The fault lies with 
the officers. A public office is not a private snap, but a 
position of public trust, and any officer who is incom- 

1 Literary Digest. September 24, 1921. 


70 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


petent or derelict of his duties or unwilling to attend to 
them with the same degree and caution as he would at¬ 
tend to his own private business is disqualified and unfit 
to hold an office of public trust, and it is the duty of this 
Grand Jury to make a careful investigation of the officers 
of this court and see that they are performing their duties 
as the law directs." 

These words are well said by Judge Hamilton. The 
trouble lies with our law for the removal of officers. Ex¬ 
cept for the one crime of crooked financial dealing, no 
officer has ever been removed from office in Texas so far 
as can be revealed by thorough state-wide investigation. 
As the law stands today our peace officers can do as they 
please. They can say to one criminal—“Go ahead with 
your operations/' or to another that he “must stop his 
criminal operations" and the state has no control over 
the officers. As the law stands today if the citizens want 
in a legal way to take action against such an officer, a 
private citizen must enter a civil suit on his own initiative, 
bear the complete expense himself and fight it through 
the courts with every obstacle imaginable placed in his 
way to defeat him. If the man is guilty of crooked finan¬ 
cial dealing he can get action; otherwise the records fail 
to show that any successful action has ever resulted from 
the dereliction of officers in Texas. 

The good citizens of Texas finding that they have no 
redress in the laws of our state have organized the Ku 
Klux Klan. We do not believe in the method of the Ku 
Klux Klan; we believe it is fraught with great danger, 
but we do not believe that the proper way to proceed is 
to bring down our vituperation upon the Ku Klux; better 
far that we correct the law and make it easy to remove 
a corrupt officer from office, and take such action as shall 
cause our public officials to no longer regard their office 
as a “public snap" but “rather a public trust," as Judge 
Hamilton says. 


KU KLUX KLAN 


7 1 


KU KLUX KLAN RADICALLY WRONG 1 

Gradually a feeling developed within me that there 
was something wrong with the organization—that it was 
not the sort of ‘‘fraternal society” to which I had been 
accustomed for nearly twenty years. I thought at first 
that this was due to the fact that I had done so much 
lodge work in my lifetime that I was growing stale. But, 
certain portions of the obligation, which at first had 
seemed merely perfunctory, stood out in my mind and 
challenged serious thought and consideration. 

I studied everything I could find to help me in my 
work; I received printed matter from the organization; 
I talked with Klansmen from other cities; and I delved 
deeply into the origin and history of the original Ku Klux 
Klan. But business men of standing and prominence in 
the places where I worked asked me pointed questions 
about the organization, questions that I could not an¬ 
swer and on which I could get no satisfactory answers 
from above. Slowly my vague fears that there was some¬ 
thing vitally wrong crystallized into stronger belief. I 
spoke to a few close friends in the organization and 
asked them to give me their frank opinions about it. 
Without any prompting from me they voiced the same 
thoughts and gave expression to the same doubts that I 
had myself. 

After much thoughtful deliberation I reached the de¬ 
cision that the Ku Klux Klan obligation was radically 
wrong. It was not the kind of obligation men take in 
fraternal organizations—it was a political organization. 
I saw that the ritual, which had previously been to me 
merely a badly written mass of words, was really a sacri- 
ligious mockery. I realized that the whole scheme was 
vicious in principle and a menace to the peace and safety 

1 By Henry P. Fry. From his introduction in “The Modern Ku Klux 
Klan.” Copyright. Small, Maynard and Company, Boston. 1922. Reprinted 
by permission. 


72 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


of America. The basis for these conclusions can be 
stated briefly: 

First. While the organization was incorporated un¬ 
der the laws of the state of Georgia as a fraternal order, 
the claim being advanced by the promoters that it should 
have similar powers to the Masons and Knights of 
Pythias, it is not a fraternal organization in the sense 
usually understood, but an attempt to create in this re¬ 
public of ours an “Invisible Empire,” entirely political 
and military in nature and designed to function bodily. 

Second. The “Invisible Empire” is under the control 
of one man who openly calls himself an “Emperor,” holds 
position for life, and exercises despotic control over the 
affairs of the organization. 

Third. Candidates—designated as “aliens”—who are 
received into the organization, are not regarded as “mem¬ 
bers” but as “citizens” of this “Invisible Empire,” and 
instead of being “initiated,” as is usually the case in fra¬ 
ternal orders, are “naturalized” and become “subjects” 
of the “Emperor.” 

Fourth. Membership is restricted to a limited class 
of American citizens, including only white, Gentile, Amer¬ 
ican-born Protestants; all other Americans being ineligi¬ 
ble. 

Fifth. In propagating this “Invisible Empire,” the 
work, which is being done all over the United States by 
a highly paid and highly efficient field force, is being 
carried on by stirring up prejudice and hatred against 
the Catholic, the Jew, the negro and the foreign-born 
American citizen. 

Sixth. Under the claim of the enforcement of “law 
and order,” the “Invisible Empire” is attempting to take 
into its grasp the entire law-enforcing machinery of the 
United States, including the officers and the men of the 
regular army and reserve corps, the national guard, 
sheriffs and their deputies, mayors, police officials, men, 
judges and all persons connected with law administra- 


KU KLUX KLAN 


73 


tion, with the exception of those ineligible under the 
rules above stated. 

Seventh. The “citizens” of the “Invisible Empire are 
urged by the organization to purchase white robes and 
helmets, which are used for the purpose of going abroad 
in disguise for the concealment of the identity of the 
wearer, and in many localities there have been parades 
and demonstrations of strength made by the organization, 
all having the effect of intimidating certain classes of 
people of these communities. 

Eighth. The sale of these robes is a monopoly in the 
hands of the Gate City Manufacturing Company, a con¬ 
cern associated with the organization, and from this 
monopoly somebody is deriving an enormous revenue. 

Ninth. The propagation of the organization is being 
conducted in such a way that it is clearly a money mak¬ 
ing scheme run for the benefit of a few insiders. 

Tenth. The claim that this is the “genuine original 
Klan” is a historical fraud, not supported by the history 
and prescript of the old Klan which are available for 
public inspection. 

Eleventh. The Ku Klux Klan propaganda is vicious, 
un-American and evil and will have a tendency to stir 
up racial and religious hatred in this country to such an 
extent as ta result, unless checked, in a serious religious- 
racial war. 

Twelfth. The ritualistic work, while clumsy, ignorant, 
plagiaristic, and poorly written is an attempt to use the 
cloak of religion to promote the financial fortunes of the 
insiders; and its principal feature—the ceremony of “na¬ 
turalization”—is a mockery and parody on the sacred 
and holy rite of baptism. 

Thirteenth. The organization should be exposed for 
what it is, and the Congress of the United States should 
enact suitable legislation to make it illegal and bar its 
literature and propaganda from the mails. 

Fourteenth. Suitable and necessary legislation should 


74 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


be enacted by Congress and the state legislatures of a 
general nature which will forever prevent the organiza¬ 
tion and operation of a secret movement of this char¬ 
acter. 


GREAT BIGOTRY MERGER 1 

The World’s exposure so advertised the organization 
that although it lost many of the better members it added 
a large following of riff-raff, and the Klan is now capi¬ 
talizing the failure of the Rules Committee of the House 
of Representatives to report on its investigation. 

In twenty-seven states the Klan has made nearly two 
hundred public appearances in hoods in the last ten 
months. Most of these appearances have been at churches, 
charitable meetings, or rallies for the Salvation Army, the 
Red Cross, the Boy Scouts, etc. Invariably gifts of money 
or Bibles or flags have been made. Masked men have also 
turned up at numerous funerals, strewn flowers upon 
the coffin, and dispersed. All this is pure bidding for 
publicity. But it is significant that the gifts to churches 
and to charity have been most numerous where the Klan 
outrages have been most flagrant. Thus, in Texas eighty- 
seven visitations of Christian charity have been paraded 
before the people. 

In Texas the Ku Klux Klan has become the instru¬ 
ment of a new negro enslavement, for it is employed in 
forcing black men to work and pick cotton at rates they 
would not accept if the decision were left to themselves. 
Throughout the south and southwest the negro popula¬ 
tion lives in constant fear of the hooded bands of night- 
riders. Everywhere, south, north, east, and west, where 
the Klan has planted the fiery cross of the Invisible Em¬ 
pire, Roman Catholics and Jews are the intended targets, 
while on the Pacific coast the Japanese are included 
among the objects of 100 per cent American vigilance. 

1 From article by Charles P. Sweeney. Nation. 115 : 8-10. July 5, 1922. 


KU KLUZ KLAN 


75 


The law may as well not exist. It is flouted and 
laughed at. In states where Klan organization has reached 
its highest point the administrators themselves are Klans- 
men. Murders, kidnappings, floggings, threats—they are 
almost daily occurrences. But a judge who denounces 
the night-riding mobs is the exception. A sheriff, Bob 
Buchanan, at Waco, Texas, with courage enough to stop 
a masked parade and demand the names of the paraders, 
is shot and then made a victim of removal proceedings 
sponsored by the most influential citizens of his county. 
A Klansman, in Birmingham, Alabama, who kills a Catho¬ 
lic priest in cold bood on his own doorstep is acquitted at 
the “trial” amidst the plaudits of the mob. A city coun¬ 
cil in the same “Birmingham the Beautiful,” considering 
an ordinance forbidding masked parades on the public 
streets, is terrorized in its own chamber into defeating 
the measure. Members of a board of education in At¬ 
lanta, Georgia, demurring at voting for a resolution to 
dismiss all Catholics employed as public school teachers, 
receive letters threatening their lives. A mayor in Co¬ 
lumbus, Georgia, who refuses to remove a city manager 
who has proved efficient and capable finds his home dyna¬ 
mited; the city manager, “a blue-bellied Yankee,” is 
driven from the city. A Roman Catholic church, at Na¬ 
perville, Illinois, is destroyed by an incendiary fire two 
hours after a monster Klan midnight initiation in the 
neighborhood. 

From the south and southeast reports have come that 
the Klan is on both sides of the prohibition question. In 
one section Klansmen manifest a determination to drive 
out all bootleggers, as for instance in Wilson, Oklahoma, 
in January last, when Klansmen attempted to banish 
Joe Carrol, a reputed bootlegger, who pulled his gun and 
fired, killing two Klansmen, and then received a fatal 
bullet himself. 

In Georgia, the Klan is generally regarded as the pro¬ 
tecting arm of the bootlegger, the regulator of men who 


76 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


do not live with their wives, and the arch-enemy of 
Catholics in politics. In Texas the Klan is likewise very 
anti-Catholic, very moral, and very wet. In Texas and 
Colorado fearless judges have held that the Klan oath 
is an impediment to justice. Judge Robert Street at 
Beaumont, Texas, removed Tom Garner, sheriff of Jef¬ 
ferson County, on the ground that his Klan oath was in 
contravention of his oath of office. In Colorado it was 
held that witnesses who refused to answer questions be¬ 
cause it would violate their Klan oath were in contempt of 
court, and three Klansmen were jailed; also when the 
Klan threatened death to Governor Shoup’s negro mes¬ 
senger unless he left the state, and by threats did succeed 
in driving from the state another reputable negro citizen, 
the state authorities refused a charter to the order. 

In their statements to the press, nevertheless, Sim¬ 
mons and Clarke continue to insist that the Klan is not 
governed by bigotry or prejudice and that it is not anti- 
Catholic. There is a volume of proof to refute this, but 
hardly more is needed than these excerpts from an ad¬ 
dress by Simmons, himself, to the Junior Order of United 
American Mechanics in Atlanta on April 30, last, as pub¬ 
lished in the Searchlight, organ of the Ku Klux Klan 
and the leading journalistic proponent of the Great Amer¬ 
ican Fraternity: 

Right here within our own borders, the great and mighty 
city of Boston, which tries to lay claim that it is the cradle 
of America (tries is all it can do), and holds itself up as the 
paragon of American principles, has, if my information is 
correct, seventeen schools in which the English language is 
never spoken, and not an English thought or an American ideal. 
These schools are for the children of French-Canadians who 
have come across the border and each of these schools are 
under the domination of a foreign potentate who is in nowise 
sympathetic with American ideals and institutions. Right here 
in our own land twenty-one towns in the state of Connecticut 
are under the domination and control of the Italian-Dago in¬ 
fluence. Then you hear folks talk about “we Americans,’’ and 
of America as the melting-pot where the stamp and impress of 
all nations can come in and shape our destinies. It is no such 
thing. It is a garbage can! Not a melting-pot. My 


KU KLUX KLAN 


77 


friends, your government can be changed between the rising 
and the setting of one sun. This great nation, with all it pro¬ 
vides, can be snatched away from you in the space of one day, 
and that day no more than ten hours. When the hordes of 
aliens walk to the ballot box and their votes outnumber yours, 
then that alien horde has got you by the throat. . . Amer¬ 
icans will awake from their slumber and rush out for battle 
and there will be such stir as the world has never seen the 
like. The soil of America will run with the blood of its people. 

In this same address the Colonel, who before Con¬ 
gress denied that he or the Klan held anti-negro pre¬ 
judices, said: 

All these folks of color can take their place—they had bet¬ 
ter take it and stay in it when they get in it. This is a white 
man’s civilization and we are the instrumentalities for the 
preservation thereof and the protection of that which was 
created by years of devotion, which has given to the world the 
open Bible, the little red school house, if you please, the great 
public-school system, all those things which have come to us 
through years of devout thought and hard work as a sacred 
heritage. . . Men tell me that the negroes in this state, and 
I am not now going outside the state of Georgia, are paying 
their poll taxes for as far back as fourteen years and quali¬ 
fying to vote. . . I am informed that every buck nigger in 
Atlanta who attains the age of twenty-one years has gotten 
the money to pay his poll tax and register, and that six thousand 
of them are now ready to vote, and that these apes are going 
to line up at the polls, mixed up there with white men and 
white women. Lord forgive me, but that is the most sickening 
and disgusting sight you ever saw. You’ve got to change that. 

. . Keep the negro and the other fellow where he belongs. 
They have got no part in our political or social life. If in one, 
he will get into the other. 

These words of the Imperial Wizard of the Invisible 
Empire are mild, indeed conservative, when compared 
with the violence of Carl F. Hutcheson, Atlanta school 
commissioner, J. O. Wood, editor of the Searchlight, or 
Walter Sims, Atlanta city councilman and Klan candidate 
for mayor. The first two of these are the principal pro¬ 
moters of the Great American Fraternity, and Hutche¬ 
son’s law partner, J. A. Morris, is president. With their 
confreres they actually induced the Klan to boycott a 
certain brand of cigarettes (Camels) because they are 


78 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


made by a concern reputed to be controlled by Thomas 
Fortune Ryan, a Catholic. They have attempted to in¬ 
timidate the Atlanta Board of Education into dismissing 
all of the Roman Catholics employed as school teachers, 
to influence employers to dismiss their Roman Catholic 
workers, and to boycott merchants who display Roman 
Catholic sympathies. Wood, a Klan candidate for the 
legislature in Georgia, has chosen as a leading plank in 
his platform a more rigid inspection of convents and in¬ 
stitutions conducted by religious orders. The Klan, sev¬ 
eral weeks ago, succeeded in effecting the dismissal of a 
school principal in El Paso, Texas, because she is a 
Catholic. This writer is in possession of first-hand infor¬ 
mation concerning a conference between several of these 
fanatics, in which Clarke, perceiving the salability of 
anti-Catholic activities, proposed the very plan now re¬ 
vealed under the title the Great American Fraternity. It 
is interesting to add that at a similar conference, sometime 
previous, Clarke worked up his hearers with a declaration 
that when the Klan influence flowered its leaders would 
aim at the sterilization of all male negro children so that 
the negro would gradually disappear from the American 
Continent. It is equally interesting that negroes are join¬ 
ing the Catholic church for self-protection. 

Clarke denies he is back of the Great American Fra¬ 
ternity. Nevertheless the idea is his. And this is the 
idea: 

1. To organize a nation-wide sales organization com¬ 
posed of members of thirteen secret orders popularly be¬ 
lieved to be hostile to the Catholic church. 

2. To instruct these salesmen in the business of sell¬ 
ing effective political anti-Catholicism to their brothers 
in their respective lodges. This is in line with the system 
adopted by Clarke in 1920 for putting over the Ku Klux. 
At that time Clarke suddenly realized the value of repre¬ 
senting the Klan to be “the fighting brother” of Masonry. 
So he issued orders that none but men with Masonic 


KU KLUX KLAN 


79 


affiliations should be employed as Kleagles, or salesmen, 
although Clarke himself is not a Mason and it is well 
understood that he could not get into the order. 

3. To find political issues, based on opposition to the 
Catholic church and to Catholics, upon which all of the 
thirteen secret societies might unite in a given city, 
county, or state. 

This idea is now a realized fact. Hutcheson and 
Wood, law partners until recently, had the Great Ameri¬ 
can Fraternity incorporated in Georgia and set the price 
of membership at $5, payable in advance upon application. 
The only other requirement is that the applicant produce 
evidence that he is a member in good standing of one or 
another of the thirteen organizations. The fact that the 
most prominent Masons of the country, as well as officials 
of the Orangemen, have repudiated the plot as anti- 
American does not worry the promoters. They are out to 
unite in a single group of haters all the haters in the 
country. . . 

Already, and without the stimulating activity of the 
Great American Fraternity, Ku Klux hatred has forced 
its way to a greater or less degree into the politics of ten 
or more of the states. In Texas Robert L. Henry, twenty 
years a member of Congress, now a candidate for Cul¬ 
berson’s seat in the Senate, was “accused” of being a 
Klansman. Unable, under the law of the Invisible Em¬ 
pire, to admit or deny the charge without a special dis¬ 
pensation “to uncover” from Atlanta, he held off until 
said dispensation was obtained, and promptly turned the 
accusation into an asset by loudly proclaiming himself a 
member of the Klan. He is now campaigning on that 
issue, and in a speech at Fort Worth declared: “The 
Klan will continue to grow, and these candidates of whom 
I speak [anti-Klan] and these great journals [anti-Klan] 
cannot destroy it.” Speaking in a similar vein Sterling 
P. Strong, another of the five Senatorial candidates, 


8 o 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


opened his campaign in a speech beginning “I am proud 
to declare myself a member of the Ku Klux Klan.” 

It is not likely that the Great American Fraternity 
will actually enlist as paid members more than one-fifth 
or one-sixth of the membership of the Ku Klux and the 
other orders named in the schedule. But with such a 
nucleus it might well be expected to become a driving 
force in American politics, for behind it the promoters 
could reasonably expect to find the sympathy and support 
of the non-paying, but none the less ardent, haters 
throughout the land. Consequently, we may expect to 
read from now on of the increasing importance of religion 
in politics; of school teachers dismissed for their religious 
beliefs; of workers losing their jobs for the same reason; 
of boycotts of merchants for the same reason; and of 
repetitions north, east, and west of the crimes of igno¬ 
rance and prejudice which for the past twenty years have 
been largely confined to the south. 

MODERN KU KLUX KLAN 1 

Not from its ritual will the true purposes and meth¬ 
ods of the organization be learned. That information is 
given by its itinerant paid speakers, who are now touring 
the south and west, soliciting membership. The indi¬ 
vidual assigned to Mississippi for this work is Joseph G. 
Camp, formerly a lyceum lecturer, now dubbed “Colonel.” 
His speech, wrung dry of its oratory and its indefinite 
but ardent praise of “100 per cent Americanism,” may 
be accurately summarized in two paragraphs. 

First. The Jews, the Catholics, the negroes, the alien- 
born are organized; they are a menace to American in¬ 
stitutions; it is necessary to combat their pernicious in¬ 
fluences ; the sole weapon to hand is the Ku Klux Klan; 
therefore, if you are a true American, join the Klan. 

1922 Fr ° m article by Lcroy Perc y- Atlantic Monthly. 130 : 122-8. July, 


KU KLUX KLAN 


81 


Second. The morals of the country are in a parlous 
condition; sexual vice, bootlegging, gambling flourish; the 
Klan loveth righteousness; if you are on the side of the 
angels, join the Klan. 

The first part of the program is effected by moulding 
public sentiment, by watching wayward politicians, by 
combating the sinister propaganda of the press, which is 
under the control of Jews or Catholics or negroes or 
foreigners. The second part of the program is the real 
work of the separate local Klans. It is accomplished in 
this wise: each Klansman is a “detective”; he goes about 
his community “with eyes and ears open,” spying on the 
morals of his fellow citizens, the objects of his scrutiny 
being serenely unconscious of it, as only Klansmen know 
who are members of the Klan; then, at the next meeting 
of the Klan, the various members report the bits of in¬ 
formation they have collected; the assembled body passes 
on the guilt or innocence of the accused (naturally, in 
his absence), and takes such course as seems necessary 
and proper. 

That course is not direct action,—an order to leave 
town, or a coat of tar-and-feathers, or a whipping, or 
worse,—as the hired press reports; but selected members 
remonstrate with the delinquent on the evil of his ways, 
even warn him; then, should he remain forward and un¬ 
regenerate, they report him and his sins to the officers 
of the law, volunteering to those officials, usually spine¬ 
less, the Klan’s aid and comfort; and if they then fail to 
act, the Klan’s duty is to see that they are retired from 
office and their places more worthily filled, preferably by 
Klansmen. 

The Klan speakers seem always to stress that part of 
their address outlining the regulation of private morals, 
and that part is very much the same wherever delivered. 
But the remainder of the address appears to vary widely 
from one section of the country to the other, to suit the 


82 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


outstanding prejudice or antipathy of the particular audi¬ 
ence being exhorted. . . 

It usually denies responsibility for all acts of violence 
committed by men in the Klan’s garb. But whether such 
denial be true or not, there is no escape from the moral 
responsibility for the acts so committed; and I have 
heard of no criminal in the garb of the Klan who has 
been brought to justice by the Klan, who alone can know 
whether he is a member of the Klan or not. 

The Grand Wizard is profuse in assurances that the 
Klan will assist officers of the law. When officers" of the 
law in any community become so helpless and impotent 
that they have to be backed up by sheeted Klansmen at 
night, that community is in a bad way. The garb of the 
Klan does not lend itself to uphold the law; it never was 
devised for that purpose. The men who first devised it 
devised it to conceal their identity when doing the lawless 
deeds that they felt justified in doing. Men who are aid¬ 
ing officers of the law in doing a right thing do not dis¬ 
guise themselves and go about after nightfall. This or¬ 
ganization tries a man on hearsay evidence, without giv¬ 
ing him an opportunity of being confronted by his accus¬ 
ers, and without lawful authority proceeds to enforce its 
judgments. The foundation-stone of government and con¬ 
stitutional liberty in our land is the right of a man to be 
confronted by his accusers and to hear the evidence 
brought against him. . . 

What is the lure that draws men to membership in 
such an organization? Why do they fall such easy vic¬ 
tims to the cheap oratory of hired itinerant speakers? 
Partly because of the “jining” proclivities of the Ameri¬ 
can people. Partly because of the desire of exercising 
power in secrecy and without responsibility. They wish 
to “get even” with some man or class of men. But in 
this section and in others the chief appeal has been to 
religious intolerance. Good men, Christian men, pastors 
of churches, have enrolled themselves as members, feel- 


KU ICLUX KLAN 


83 

ing that in some way through this mysterious order they 
would be able to combat the forces of evil, and especially 
the political activities of the Roman Catholic church, por¬ 
trayed in such lurid colors by these new evangelists. 
There has been a recrudescence of that puritanical med¬ 
dlesomeness which seeks to regulate the habits, lives, and 
consciences of other people. The secret methods of the 
Inquisition all but destroyed the Church of Rome, and for 
hundreds of years, Protestants, whatever might be their 
denomination, have gloried in freedom of discussion and 
publicity; prayer and Christian suasion have been recog¬ 
nized as the means of reaching the erring sinner; yet, to¬ 
day, Christian ministers are found endorsing the idea 
that men can be made more righteous by a tar treatment 
applied at night by masked inquisitors. 

Assuredly no word of the Man of Galilee can be 
quoted in extenuation of the unutterable cruelty and 
cowardice of such treatment. The incident in the Bible 
which more nearly parallels midnight operations of the 
Klan than any other is the one in which they came at 
night to take Jesus, and He said: “Are ye come out, as 
against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? 
I was daily with you in the Temple, teaching, and ye took 
me not.” Since when, among Christian peoples, taking 
men at night has not been in good repute. They have 
been told by their chief instructors—Wizards, Kleagles, 
Genii—that the Knights of Columbus, as a representative 
of the Great Catholic hierarchy, is on the eve of catholi¬ 
cizing America and destroying our educational institu¬ 
tions; and instead of fighting this hobgoblin, created by 
their leaders for profit, in the open, according to the 
manner of their forefathers, they seek to overcome the 
powers of evil by donning a clown’s garb, swearing to 
conceal their identity, and marching behind an Imperial 
Wizard, whom they are sworn to obey. They fail to 
realize that our government has been established by free 
American people, who will handle it without interference 


84 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


by, or dictation from, church or clan; that it is to be 
governed by neither priest nor wizard, knights nor klans- 
men. 

The most malign effect of the organization is the de¬ 
struction of the spirit of helpfulness, cooperation, and 
love in the community where it intrudes itself. In a 
community composed of Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and 
Protestants, white and black, where the life and progress 
of the community has been marked by helpfulness and 
cooperation, friendship and harmony, this organiza¬ 
tion comes to plant discord, racial hatred, religious dissen¬ 
sion, and intolerance. Whatever may be its aspirations, 
it can breed only suspicion and distrust among the mem¬ 
bers of a community. It paralyzes all spirit of coopera¬ 
tion. It is violative of every principle of Christianity, 
repugnant to every sense of right, justice, and fair deal¬ 
ing between man and man. Good citizenship should ac¬ 
tively and openly oppose its entry into any community. 

A NIGHTGOWN TYRANNY 1 

The real Ku Klux Klan worked for a psychological 
effect, not a physical effect. A white-robed horseman 
would ride up to a darky’s cabin, hand the bridle of his 
horse to a negro with one hand, reach up with his other 
hand and remove his own ‘'head,” offering it to a negro 
to hold, saying, “That old head hasn’t worked right since 
I was killed at Antietam.” Or a costumed Klansman 
would come to a negro’s shanty in the night and ask for 
a pail of water. The ghost would “drink” this water in a 
few gulps, pouring the water into a rubber bag, hidden 
m his robe. He would then remark, “That’s the best drink 
I’ve had since I was killed at the battle of Shiloh.” 

Thousands and scores of thousands of such alarming 
but harmless incidents were brought about by the intel- 

Sh ' Pherd - L “ UA 1I "“ Weekly. 


KU KLUX KLAN 


85 


ligent Klansman of the south. The superstition about the 
Klansmen was spread through the negro world, and his¬ 
torians of both the north and south do not hesitate to 
say that the Klansmen did much to make easier the transi¬ 
tion from slavery to a sounder economic condition. 

But—and here is the point on which the movement 
of today hinges—the leaders among the Ku Klux Klan 
of those days found that the movement was getting out 
of their control. They officially disorganized in 1869 the 
Klan which had been first organized in Pulaski, Tenn., 
in 1867. Loyal members of the Klan tore up their white 
robes, destroyed their records and formally disbanded 
the organization. 

Yet white-robed night riders continued to ride. They 
made full use of all the paraphernalia of the Klan. But 
physical rather than psychological punishment was their 
aim, and only too often their object was not to perform 
punishment but to commit outright crime. The real Klans¬ 
men had sought only to subjugate, by superstition, the 
restless and unruly myriads of negroes who had been set 
free by Lincoln’s proclamation. The pseudo-Klansmen, 
who came after them, often terrified entire communities, 
including whites themselves. Life became insecure in 
many southern communities, as a result of the activities 
of the alleged Klansmen, and the Congress of the United 
States was finally called upon to investigate the situation. 
Members of the original Klan appeared before Congres¬ 
sional committees and testified that the purposes of the 
Klan had been legitimate. They were “the protection of 
the weak; the relief of the injured and oppressed; the 
extension of aid to orphans and widows of Confederate 
soldiers, and assistance to the government in the execu¬ 
tion of all constitutional law.” 

The objects of this twentieth-century Ku Klux Klan, 
as stated in an application blank which I secured during 
investigation in southern states, are far different from 
those of the original Klan. The creed of the old organiza- 


86 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


tion, for instance, provided that members should recognize 
the “Divine Being.” The application blank of today’s 
order has drawn a creed, as well as a color line; the ap¬ 
plicant, it has been specified, must be a “white, male, 
Gentile,” a “believer in the tenets of the Christian re¬ 
ligion.” While the old order, in other words, admitted all 
white men, the new order has admitted only American- 
born, white male Occidentals. . . 

The aims and objects of the new order resound with 
fine declarations of Americanism. These, if carried out 
in legal fashion, would undoubtedly make the United 
States a better place in which to live. But it is the dif¬ 
ficulty of forcing the Klansmen to act in legal fashion 
which gives the new movement a sinister aspect. 

The Grand Wizard recently declared: 

In the face of these great objects and purposes, to which 
every American should and does subscribe, it is ridiculous for 
anyone to imagine that I, as Imperial Wizard, would allow this 
organization to degenerate into a lawless institution of any kind. 

We are increasing, at the present time, at the rate of five 
thousand members a week. The increase is double north of 
the Mason-and-Dixon line. 

The only punishment which the Imperial Wizard can 
mete out to an organization which tends to bring about 
degeneration of the Ku Klux Klan is dismissal or with¬ 
drawal of the charter. This dismissal cannot in any way 
prevent the former members from clothing themselves 
in white robes, covering their automobiles in white 
drapery, hiding their automobile license numbers and pro¬ 
ceeding to acts of lawlessness as before. . . 

A list of the activities of the men in white robes in 
the state of Texas for six months brings to light a situa¬ 
tion which not even the state of Texas, much less the 
“Ku Klux Klan” law of the federal government have 
been able to prevent. If the officers of the law find them¬ 
selves unable to control such a condition as exists in 
Texas, how can a private citizen, member of a weird 
society, having no power except that of striking from a 


KU KLUX KLAN 


87 


book the name of an offending local chapter of his or¬ 
der expect to do so? The Texas record for half a year 
runs something like this: 

February 5.—B. I. Hobbs, lawyer, Houston, Tex.; hair 
clipped, ordered to leave town because of large negro practice. 
February 8.—Lawyer Hobbs ran out of Alvin, Tex. March 13.— 
A. V. Hopkins, merchant, Houston, Tex., tarred and feathered 
for annoying girls. March 15.—J. Lafayette Cockrell, Houston, 
negro dentist, ‘’punished” by white men for alleged association 
with white women. April 1.—Alexander Johnson, Dallas, negro 
bellboy; whipped and branded for alleged association with white 
women. April 10.—August Beck, cattleman, Webster; tied to 
pole and beaten. April 26.—J. W. McGee, auto salesman; 
whipped by masked men at Houston for attempted flirting; fined 
in police court. May 1.—Red Kemp, jitney driver, Goose Creek; 
whipped, tarred and feathered; supposed bootlegger. May 4.— 
Town Marshall Samuel King; tarred and feathered; resigned 
office. May 7.—Dr. J. S. Paul, Beaumont; tarred and feathered 
for alleged malpractice. May 21.—Justice of the Peace, Joseph 
J. Devere, Sour Lake; tarred and feathered. May 24.—John 
Parks, Dallas, flogged; charged with aggravated assault. June 
8.—Dr. R. H. Lenert, Brenham; whipped, tarred and feathered; 
charged with speaking German and with disloyalty during the 
war. June 14.—Attorney J. W. Boyd taken from office and 
whipped on charges of annoying girls. June 17.—Negro James 
Collins, Belton; whipped and branded, after grand jury had 
failed to indict him on charges of annoying white women. 
June 18.—E. L. Bloodsworth and Olan Jones, oil field workers; 
tarred and feathered and driven out of town. June 20.—Henry 
Schulz, Wharton; alleged German; tarred and feathered. June 
27—Ku Klux Klan at Austin, Tex., posted placards warning 
against violations of the moral law. July 5.—Benjamin Pinto, 
found in automobile with woman, tarred and feathered; woman 
taken to her home. July 8.—Harry Adams, gardener, San 
Antonio; beaten and choked; released when “avengers” found 
they had the wrong man. July 9.—Citizens of Beeville met and 
passed resolutions against Ku Klux Klan offering $100 reward 
for apprehension of Klan. July 9.—Representative Rountree, of 
Brazos County, proposed anti-Ku Klux Klan legislation in 
Texas legislature. July 16.—Judge Hamilton, at Austin, an¬ 
nounced that no members of Ku Klux Klan could sit on jury 
in his court. July 16.—Mrs. Beulah Johnson, white woman; 
taken from hotel porch at Tenaha, stripped, tarred and feathered. 
July 16.—W. M. Houpengarner, banker; tarred and feathered 
and beaten, on charges of infidelity. July 18.—E. H. Peters, 
Chandler; dragged from his room to automobile, robbed of 
$200 after severe beating, and thrown from the car, gravely 
injured. 


88 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


There were ten parades of local Ku Klux Klan or¬ 
ganizations in Texas during the first six months of the 
year. In some cases donations of money were given to 
worthy causes. The Houston Y.W.C.A. received $600 
after their home had burned. The San Antonio Orphans’ 
Home received $100 from the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan 
at Wharton, Texas, gave a widow $ 50 . A county judge 
at Cuero was given $60 to present to a tuberculosis suf¬ 
ferer. The Dallas Orphans’ Home received $100 from 
the local Klan. 

I have chosen these examples in Texas because the 
newspapers there have been actively and aggressively 
opposed to the Ku Klux Klan, and have kept a careful 
record of the Klan’s activities in the state. Analysis of 
the cases given above will show that, at the beginning 
of the year, the Klan directed its attention mostly toward 
correcting questions of color. They finally worked their 
way toward settling domestic difficulties, and trying to 
direct private and public morals by means of force. This 
means that they turned their attentions to whites rather 
than to negroes. After half a year of activity one branch 
of the Klan does not find itself able to stop at the punish¬ 
ment of men, but subjects a white American woman to 
the most disgusting “punishment.” And shortly there¬ 
after, when the Texas courts and Texas citizens are op¬ 
posing the activities of the Klan, we find robbers using 
the Klan’s costumes and methods to remove a man from 
a hotel and rob him. 

Records of the Klan’s activities in other states will 
show the same tendency of white-robed men—whether 
they be true Klansmen or not—toward criminal interfer¬ 
ence with individuals or toward actual robbery and mur¬ 
der. Worthy as are the motives of the leaders of this 
twentieth-century Ku Klux Klan, it begins to appear, 
after an existence of about two years, that they can no 
more keep the new Klan to its high ideals than could the 
fine old southern General Forrest, when he disbanded it 
then. 


KU KLUX KLAN 


89 


Any careful investigator of the new Ku Klux Klan, 
who works on the scene and analyzes the deeds of the 
men in the white robes, must come to the conclusion that 
the new Klan is a dangerous and unmanageable thing 
and that citizens who attempt to put it down in their own 
communities are seeking to protect themselves from dan¬ 
gers that are very real. 

In many parts of the south, notably Florida, Texas, 
Oklahoma, North Carolina and Georgia, citizens and of¬ 
ficials both are beginning a strong campaign against the 
Klan. In North Carolina the State Dragon has ordered 
the state organization disbanded. The society is too dan¬ 
gerous and, in spite of its fine American platform, too un- 
American in its plans and operations, to be endured. 

HOW ELECTIONS ARE CARRIED IN TEXAS 1 

The Ku Klux Klan is probably stronger in Texas than 
in any other state; it controls the state politically by con¬ 
trolling the machinery of the Democratic Party; it num¬ 
bers in its membership probably a majority of the of¬ 
ficials and certainly a very large majority of the peace- 
officers. The calm complaisance of the majority of the 
population who are not members of the Ku Klux Klan 
can only be explained by their ignorance of the funda¬ 
mentals of government. The fact that this organization 
is setting up a separate government which attempts to rise 
superior to constitutional government seems not to excite 
them in the least. They hear of someone being dragged 
away from his dinner table to be beaten or tarred and 
feathered, and usually they dismiss it with: “Well, maybe 
he deserved it.” It does not seem to occur to them that 
the same evidence which convicted him in a secret ses¬ 
sion of the Ku Klux Klan could just as well have been 
offered before a district judge and a jury in open court. 
A friend of mine put the case in Texas recently in the 

1 From article Collapse of Constitutional Government, by Chester T. 
Crowell. Independent. 109 : 333-4. December 9, 1922. 


90 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


following words: “The issue in this state is whether we 
are going to have courthouse justice or river-bottom jus¬ 
tice.” In that particular campaign in which my friend 
made speeches the people of Texas voted by an over¬ 
whelming majority for river-bottom justice. 

Before the Democratic primary election in Texas last 
July there were six candidates for the Democratic nomi¬ 
nation for United States Senator. Three of them were 
members of the Ku Klux Klan. Before the primary 
election took place the Ku Klux Klan held a primary of 
its own, an elimination contest in which the three Klans- 
men were voted upon by Klansmen. The other three can¬ 
didates were not considered at all. The Klansmen, having 
selected their nominee, went into the Democratic pri¬ 
maries and voted solidly for the man who won in their 
Klan primary. In this way they ensured the nomination 
of a Klansman. When these facts filtered out a large 
body of Democrats decided to bolt the primary, taking 
the position that the successful candidate was really the 
Ku Klux Klan nominee and not the Democratic nominee. 
These bolters joined with the Republicans and put up a 
fusion candidate. He was defeated by more than one 
hundred thousand majority. It seemed to make no differ¬ 
ence to the vast majority of the voters that they had gone 
into a primary to vote their single votes when “the deck 
was already stacked” and one of the candidates had one 
hundred and twenty thousand oath-bound votes to start 
with. In Oregon the Klan is in the Republican Party, in 
the south it is in the Democratic Party, and when it fails 
in a primary election to nominate a Klansman it never 
fails to put up an independent ticket if there is any hope 
of success. 

There are, no doubt, many patriotic men in the Klan 
who believe that through its operations a higher class 
of candidates can be induced to run for office. In some 
localities that hope has been realized, but taking the gen¬ 
eral averages for Texas as an example or for any group 


KU KLUX KLAN 


9i 


of states, there does not seem to be any notable change 
one way or the other. The outstanding feature of Klan 
operations in politics is obviously fanatical loyalty to the 
Klan group which generates violations of the election laws 
and then excuses them. That was particularly the case 
in Texas in the last Democratic primary; largely through 
Klan activities a campaign fund at least four times the 
legal limit fixed by state statute, and perhaps ten times 
the limit, was raised and expended in behalf of this can¬ 
didate. When the fact that he had violated the election 
laws was proved against him in the thirteenth district 
court at Corsicana, Texas, the Klan rallied more loyally 
than ever to his support. The uncontradicted testimony 
before that court showed the raising and expenditure of 
four times the legal limit for campaign expenses. 


INTOLERANCE IN OREGON 1 

Oregon vies with Texas and Oklahoma as the state 
in which the Ku Klux nuisance comes nearest being an 
actual menace. In Oregon as in other states there is a 
temptation to over-simplification in describing the Ku 
Klux Klan. It is not merely a childish outburst of anti- 
Jewish, anti-Catholic and anti-foreign bigotry. If it were 
nothing but a Freudian escape for suppressed hatreds of 
this kind it would have disappeared like a bad dream in 
the sunshine and invigorating atmosphere of this healthy 
and sane commonwealth. The masks and gibberish, the 
appeals to instinctive hostility to the unfamiliar, the play 
on stereotyped racial and religious prejudices, are all 
there and they are disturbing evidence of the limits to 
what education can do even for a selected and naturally 
intelligent people. 

Oregon is predominantly white, native, protestant and 
typically American. Its early settlers came from the 

1 Survey. 40 : 76-7. October is, 1022. 


92 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


south as well as from the north. It has no serious race 
problem and no reason for acute industrial conflict. Its 
people are lumbermen, farmers, fruitgrowers, and busi¬ 
ness men. The workers live mainly in their own town 
homes or on their own farms and ranches. It is a healthy, 
homogeneous population, with a low death rate and little 
illiteracy. Portland is a more representative city than San 
Francisco, Los Angeles, or Seattle. Her roses, her rivers 
and her heights are unique; but her citizens are of the 
best blood, if there are any differences, and her political 
and social institutions are as progressive and as favorable 
to the development of the best character as those of any 
other state. 

Why, then, should a Ku Klux candidate for governor 
have come within five hundred votes of carrying the 
Republican primaries? Why are there likely to be many 
of its candidates in the legislature? Above all, why are 
the people required to vote on a measure which will at 
one stroke abolish all private schools—whether religious 
or secular—and require all children of school age to at¬ 
tend the public schools, with an ambiguous exception 
which is supposed to permit private individual tutoring? 

The essential fact seems to be that in our contempo¬ 
raneous American education—both the formal education 
of the schools and the more pervasive unconscious edu¬ 
cation of the home, the church, and the social life as a 
whole—we are cultivating prejudice, planting seeds of 
intolerance and bigotry. We are not really encouraging 
either a scientific or a tolerant temper. We assume that 
children are to become Methodists or Presbyterians, Uni¬ 
tarians or Catholics, Republicans or Democrats, Prohibi¬ 
tionists, Anti-radicals or what not, and we do not really 
teach them how to reason or how to think about religious, 
political, economic, and social questions. We have an 
easy-going faith or assumption that if children learn to 
read and to count; if they learn certain historical, geo¬ 
graphical, and scientific facts, they will somehow know 
how to act. It is a stupendous delusion. 


ICU KLUX KLAN 


93 


We reap the consequences in the phenomenon of a 
Ku Klux movement sweeping over the country and find¬ 
ing even high school and college graduates helpless before 
its sophistries, its lies, its appeals to our worst impulses. 
If those lies and base appeals stood alone they would, 
of course, get little response. Why do they not stand 
alone? They are interwoven with quite different issues. 
Our courts and prosecuting officials do not always cope 
successfully with crime, even flagrant and notorious law¬ 
breaking. This being the case, law and order movements, 
vigilance committees, societies for the suppression of 
vice, lynch law, are no novelties in American life. The 
war increased the business of spying and informing be¬ 
yond any previous experience. Now comes the Ku Klux 
Klan to nationalize this tendency; to make it relatively 
safe by mask and mass action. Everyone who knows of 
an immune bootlegger, a home-breaker, an abortionist, a 
radical agitator; everyone who believes that there are 
such offenders unwhipped of justice; and every neurotic 
or disappointed person who nurses a personal grievance 
against society, becomes a ready mark for the Ku Klux 
salesman. What is more plausible than the program of 
cleaning up the town, running the offenders against com¬ 
mon decency out of the community altogether, not merely 
fining them after an expensive trial, but putting an end 
once and for all to their practices, and at the same time 
giving vent to a little pent-up belligerency and unacknowl¬ 
edged love of deviltry in the ones who are thus vindicating 
law and order? 

In Oregon the Ku Klux Klan has not thus taken the 
law into its own hands except in a few isolated instances. 
It is less masked, more open in its methods, than in some 
other states. It is a direct political rather than an under¬ 
ground guerilla movement. It boldly challenges support. 
It has its headquarters and avowed candidates. Its goal 
is the same as in other states—nothing less than complete 
political control of legislature, administration and courts; 
and it sees a chance of arriving at that goal without the 


94 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


preliminary steps necessary elsewhere. The struggle is on 
in the local elections, in the legislative contests and in the 
initiated amendment, misleadingly called compulsory edu¬ 
cation. 

The difficulty is in seeing through the complications. 
The issue is primarily one of tolerance, of freedom for 
education. 

The state has an undoubted right to supervise private 
and church schools, to establish standards to which they 
shall conform, even to examine teachers and see whether 
they are qualified to give the instruction which the state 
deems essential. But the state should not establish a 
monopoly of education. To set up one type of school and 
to say that there shall be no other even at private ex¬ 
pense would be to put education in a strait-jacket. The 
state has an indisputable right to tax all wealth and all 
incomes for the support of its free public schools; but it 
is not sound policy to say that all children must attend 
these schools regardless of the wishes of parents. The 
public schools do not need such coercion and would 
suffer from the absence of the stimulation of free com¬ 
petition. Variation is, of course, possible within a public 
school system, but what is needed is the utmost possible 
freedom of experiment and variation and this a monopo¬ 
lized, closed public school system would not secure. 

One extraordinary manifestation of the Ku Klux 
spirit in Oregon is the sudden fire of criticism against the 
effort of the Roman Catholic church to promote the 
spiritual welfare of its own students at the state univer¬ 
sity. It will be recalled that a few years ago a very well 
and very favorably known priest, Rev. Edwin V. O’Hara, 
was transferred by his own desire from Portland to the 
rural county in which the state university is located. The 
rural social problem is admittedly pressing and serious 
and the decision of a competent and successful clergyman 
to move from what may have been a more congenial city 


ICU KLUX KLAN 


95 


pastorate to an experimental undertaking of this kind 
was greeted on all sides with enthusiastic interest. 

Incidentally it has given the opportunity also to estab¬ 
lish in Newman Hall a religious center for Catholic stu¬ 
dents in the state university. This institution is not on 
the campus but is conveniently near. There is no charge 
that there has been religious propaganda from it, or any 
attempt at interference which the most sensitive critic 
could discover. Father O’Hara has not sought such privi¬ 
leges as the Y.M.C.A. or Y.W.C.A. have long enjoyed 
without objection. The natural and logical sentiment of 
those who believe in higher education by the state would 
seem to be one of satisfaction that the Catholics have 
accepted the policy; that they realize that they cannot 
compete with the university by creating a local college 
or university of their own; that they will therefore coop¬ 
erate by encouraging their young men and women to 
attend the state institution and will themselves furnish 
that counsel and religious atmosphere which they regard 
as essential, in such a way as not to interfere with the 
academic activities of its students. Instead of this we 
hear that there must be some sinister motive, some desire 
to displace protestant regents or instructors by Catholics, 
some deep conspiracy reaching back, perhaps, to a subtle 
Italian brain or a Sinn Fein firebrand. 

It is absurd, of course, and it will probably be short¬ 
lived. Whether it is or not will disclose the amount of 
fundamental common sense, sense of humor, political 
sense, latent in the men and women of Oregon. The 
menace lies in the encouragement of hatreds which should 
be displaced by cooperation, bigotry which should give 
way to understanding, reasoning by shibboleths which 
should give way to discriminating analysis. The menace 
does not lie in Rome or in Moscow or in Tokio; in any 
race, or color, or creed. It lies in our American com¬ 
plexes, our stereotypes, our traditions, our reversions. 


96 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


Oregon is passing through a spasm, acutely revealing a 
general national disease, not hopeless but distressing. 

KU KLUX AND CRIME 1 

A ghastly crime was committed at Mer Rouge, Lou¬ 
isiana. Of that there is not a shadow of doubt. Two 
men were killed after more revolting tortures than the 
Spanish Inquisition or the most degenerate Roman tyrants 
ever conceived. Or they died under the tortures. We 
leave it to the medical profession to say how long a man 
withstands the shock of successive amputations and the 
slow crushing of bones. Who committed the crime? That 
has not been proved. Perhaps it will never be proved. 
But the belief is nearly universal, and is not likely ever 
to be dispelled, that the local Ku Klux Klan committed 
the crime and shielded the murderers. 

And from this belief it is only a short step to the 
belief that the whole vast nebulous organization, with its 
Imperial Wizard and King Kleagles, its mummeries and 
monkey-shines, its Kloran mouthings and horrendous 
oaths, is essentially a criminal organization. By their 
fruits—and what kind of tree bore the gruesome horrors 
of Mer Rouge? But that is to oversimplify. We Ameri¬ 
cans are, after all, a moral people. There is nothing that 
flourishes widely among us which does not spring origin¬ 
ally from a moral intention. Hell may be paved with 
such intentions but that is no reason for denying their 
inherent quality. 

The men who make up the rank and file of the Ku 
Klux Klan are, most of them, good citizens, according 
to their lights. They take America, its present and fu¬ 
ture, with extreme seriousness. They see grave dangers 
rearing their heads around them. Why should they not? 
In every age all men who take life seriously see grave 
dangers rising against the things they hold most dear. 
Where men differ is in respect to what is to be held dear, 

1 New Republic. 33 : 189-90. January 17, 1923. 


ICU ICLUX KLAN 


97 


what dangerous, and what methods shall be employed to 
combat evils commonly accepted as such. 

The Ku Klux Klan holds that the dearest values in 
American life are Protestantism; white supremacy, in 
America and the world; Anglo-Saxon legal institutions; 
the system of free private enterprise, or since the word 
no longer carries a reproach, capitalism. These are re¬ 
spectable values. If one is a Protestant, white, Anglo- 
American, by blood or assimilation, an owner, present 
or prospective, of property, why should he not cherish 
them? Here and there you may find an individual who 
repudiates the principles by which he counts in life and 
yet retains his intellectual and moral integrity. Such cases 
are necessarily rare. Most men have to believe in what 
they are. . . 

And the Klan looks like an appropriate means. It 
represents organization, the key to effectiveness, in the 
accepted American view. It is secret, and the American, 
as a man who talks much and boasts freely, naturally ex¬ 
aggerates the potency of secrecy. In consequence he has 
always been haunted by the fear of conspiracies, con¬ 
spiracies hatched by the Pope, the Jews, the Reds, Japa¬ 
nese conspiracies to seize the Pacific coast, negro con¬ 
spiracies to kill and rob and burn. Shall the devil monopo¬ 
lize the good tune of secret conspiracy? We will con¬ 
spire ourselves, in the Lord’s name. . . 

In this great, heterogeneous America of ours a nation¬ 
wide society is formed, bound to secrecy and mutual 
support by an oath which, in the act of administering it, 
is declared to be the most solemn conceivable, whose vio¬ 
lation is punishable by death. Is it not inevitable that 
bitter and homicidal suspicion should often be injected 
into communities where a society bound by such an oath 
operates ? Is it not inevitable that men should be accused 
of joining the order to betray it—some falsely accused, 
some on good grounds? Is it not inevitable that private 
vengeance should often be exacted through such a form 
of organization, or by outside miscreants availing them- 


98 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


selves of the Klan’s name and fame? Is it possible that 
the law will operate, without restraint and without sus¬ 
picion, to redress the wrongs committed by the Klan or 
in its name? 

To raise these questions is to answer them. For no 
one who faces the conditions of American life squarely 
can have any faith in the statement of Klansmen that 
the character of the membership is a guaranty of moder¬ 
ate and lawful action. Only the best people are admitted 
to the order? The definition of “best people” may vary 
widely from Washington to Mer Rouge. “Best people” 
in some parts of America appear to relish the odor of 
burning human flesh. A nation-wide society of “best 
people” may be anything, and do anything, unless all its 
acts are subject to full publicity which enables the ma¬ 
jority of the organization to keep the minority under 
control. 

But why borrow trouble, it may be asked. The Klan 
as a whole has not yet departed from its original pur¬ 
pose. When it does, there will be time for respectable 
citizens to get out. Yes, and to leave behind them the 
worst elements, equipped with the machinery of secret 
organization that will enable them to commit crimes with 
impunity. That is the gravest danger that lurks in a secret 
organization for political or social ends, like the Klan. 

There are few Americans who have not shuddered 
over the crimes of the Mafia and Camorra, those asso¬ 
ciations of blackmailers, kidnappers, murderers who ter¬ 
rorize the Italian communities in our cities and occasion¬ 
ally present the police with a mysterious crime to occupy 
them vainly for months and years. What a good Klans- 
man thinks of those societies it is needless to inquire. 
Yet the Mafia and Camorra appear to have been origin¬ 
ally launched with patriotic purposes not less lofty than 
those of the Klan. They included, and to some extent 
still include, the best people, just like the Klan. Crimes 
were committed by them; crimes were committed in their 


KU ICLUX KLAN 


99 


name. They degenerated to criminal organizations and 
live on, a curse to the Italian people throughout the 
world. 

There is no room for the secret political society in a 
civilized state. It may seem to work for good, for a 
time, but there is no permanent gain from good wrought 
through terrorism. Sooner or later such an engine runs 
away from its drivers, and where it will end and what it 
will destroy on the road no one can foretell. It is the 
plain duty of every American legislature to unmask the 
Klan and make its acts and personnel public, before it 
evolves into a thing against which orderly government 
will strive in vain. 


DENOUNCES KLAN IN WARNING TO MASONS 1 

In one of the most important communications on the 
Ku Klux Klan issue by any Masonic official in this sec¬ 
tion of the country, Frederick W. Hamilton, 33d degree, 
of the local Masonic Temple, who is supreme council 
deputy for Massachusetts, in a notice sent to Scottish 
Rite Masonic members, gives warning that no Klansman 
is entitled to membership in the organization and further 
points out that “no Scottish Rite Freemason can consis¬ 
tently be a Klansman.” 

The notice sent out by Deputy Hamilton and headed 
“Ku Klux Klan,” reads in part as follows: 

It has come to my attention that Scottish Rite Masons are 
being solicited to join the Ku Klux Klan, on the ground that 
its announced purposes should commend themselves to Masons. 

Some of them would; others should not. 

Men and organizations are to be judged by their acts, not 
by their professions. 

The Klan calls itself an invisible empire. There is no place 
for an invisible empire in the United States. Masonry stands 
four-square for the United States and its constitutional principles 
and usages. 

The mask is the refuge of the coward. 

The Klan can disavow the deeds of masked men. 

1 New York Times. January 23, 1923. 


TOO 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


The Klan can claim that masked malefactors steal its livery 
and bring it into unmerited obloquy. Possibly, but the Klan 
invites it. 

The Klan, secretly and behind masks, tries, sentences and 
executes the sentences. We have courts and the ballot box for 
the punishment of wrong-doing and the abolition of abuses. 
Recourse to other means is not only un-American, but sub¬ 
versive of that order which is one of the foundation stones of 
Masonry. 

Any men have the right to associate publicly for the purpose 
of accomplishing social and political ends by the formation of 
public opinion and the use of the ballot. 

No men have the right to associate privately to accomplish 
social and political ends by mystery and terror and outside the 
law. 


LETTER ON KU KLUX KLAN 1 

Mayor Curley addressed the following letter upon the 
13th instant relative to the Ku Klux Klan outrages: 

City of Boston, 

Office of the Mayor, 

January 13 1923. 

A. V. Dalrymple, Esq., Attorney-at-Law, 201-14 Wheat Build¬ 
ing, Fort Worth, Texas: 

My dear Mr. Dalrymple, —I have your stirring letter of 
January 4, 1923, which is instinct with the true spirit of Amer¬ 
ica, revealing the courage, resolution and fidelity genuine Amer¬ 
icanism connotes, and without which American liberty must go 
down before that sham patriotism which thrives in darkness 
and falsehood, which seeks by violence and terrorism to over¬ 
ride the law and constitution of the land and supplant the prin¬ 
ciples of American democracy by the abominations of organized 
scoundrelism. I can understand thoroughly the flaming indig¬ 
nation of men like you fighting on the forefront of the battle 
line for their precious political heritage and facing the meanest 
and most unscrupulous enemies that ever warred against the 
civil, religious and political freedom of America. 

Your call to us of the north to aid in crushing this mon¬ 
strous spawn of ignorance, bigotry, greed and deception cannot 
and will not go unanswered. The time has come for the sane 
elements of American life to organize themselves into a body 
that will stand unflinchingly back of the law and its enforce¬ 
ment; that will not only pitilessly destroy this Ku Klux Klan 
abomination, but will drive out of the political, professional 

1 City Record. (Boston). 15 193. January 27, 1923. 


ICU ICLUX KLAN 


IOI 


and mercantile life of America the leaders and organizers of 
the Klan, and the men who have given them their aid and 
sympathy, openly or secretly. 

The men who are engaged in this monstrous conspiracy are 
public enemies, unworthy of tolerance or mercy, lacking even 
the condonation of their crimes—insanity—we accord to dyna¬ 
miters and anarchists. Ku Klux Klanistn is a crime against 
Christianity, Americanism and civilization. It is a monstrous 
hypocrisy; a cold-blooded and deliberate fomentation of hatred 
and persecution to enable its leaders and preachers to grow 
rich on the credulity of their gulls, to secure political power 
and enable them to transform the American republic into a 
huge camorra, more odious than any other political monstrosity 
that has affrighted the modern world. 

Unless we destroy it it will destroy us; but destroyed it 
must be as pitilessly as rabid dogs are destroyed. 

The commercialism and greed that are at the base of Ku 
Klux Klanism are already manifesting themselves. Publicity is 
one of its feeders, since its grotesque and fantastic methods 
appeal to the weak-minded and credulous and its nocturnal 
murders, burning and outrages, call to the criminal and de¬ 
generate. Its various manifestations are a challenge to civili¬ 
zation and its government and law; and it is time to take up 
and answer the challenge. . . . 

There is talk of the organization of a protestant society to 
fight it, since it degrades and discredits Protestantism. I believe 
every political leader in the state should be placed on record. 
The decent membership of the masonic order should be called 
upon to repudiate the so-called Scottish rite now openly in 
alliance with the Klan in the west. Our motto should be, 
“Those who are not with us are against us;” and we must 
institute a rigid, persistent, peaceful boycott against every person, 
corporation and business that does not stand out openly and 
firmly against the Klan and all it means. Moreover, I believe 
pressure should be brought upon the banking interests of the 
north to refuse capital or credit to the cities and communities 
tolerating this anti-American camorra, since its reign of terror 
and persecution makes business and trade subject to the threats 
of outlaws and outlawry, destroying the confidence on which 
they are based. 

Bankers of sanity can be made to understand this and in 
the last resort it is the savings of the plain, law-abiding citizens 
which furnish the capital of the banks here and elsewhere; 
and those people can refuse to permit their money to be used 
to finance persons and communities that are public enemies and 
wreckers of society. 

Above all things let us refuse resolutely to tolerate weak¬ 
ness, cowardice or betrayal in the places of authority. Let us 
stand behind law and order until they fail us; and then we 
can remember the example of the Italian Fascisti. The peace, 
safety and freedom of the land must be preserved at all hazards, 


102 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


and daylight and decency, courage and loyalty will triumph over 
the hosts of darkness and degeneracy. 

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. The men of the 
north who broke the might of Germany and saved Europe from 
its menace are not the men to brook the insolence or recruit the 
ranks of the Ku Klux Klan. They will war if war be best 
and if they have to fight to make America safe and its law 
respected and obeyed, there will be little left to this creature 
of the night to bury. Ku Klux Klanism must be treated as all 
forms of treason, outrage and lawlessness are treated, with vigor 
and without mercy. 

It is necessary of course to educate the public as to the true 
character and purpose of this iniquitous organization; and its 
rather transparent attempt to pose as one thing south and 
another thing north, must be exposed; and it must be made to 
stand naked in the sun for what it is, an enemy of law and 
order, a foe of Christianity and civilization, a wrecker of civil 
and religious liberty, a violator of the Constitution, an organized 
system of murder, torture, arson and outrage, a traitor to God 
and country. 

Let us get rid of this puerile twaddle called “ioo per cent 
Americanism,” whose devotees are ioo per cent anti-American. 
Let us announce our whole-hearted hatred of government by 
church vestries and secret society lodges; and stand inflexibly for 
the principles of Washington, Jackson and Lincoln. 

Let us be led by men, not midnight marauders. Let our 
totem be the lion not the coyote, the eagle not the turkey 
buzzard. 

Yours very truly, 

James M. Curley, Mayor. 


KU KLUX KLAN 1 

I am enclosing a copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica 
account of the Camorra. The Ku Klux Klan is even 
more dangerous to the integrity of our own organized 
government because of its very insidiousness. Primarily 
an ignorantly conceived scheme—anti-Catholic, anti-Jew 
and anti-negro—it possessed the appeal of the mysterious 
and of anonymity. Now it seeks to dignify itself by an 
assumption of exclusive Americanism and as the knight 
errant of punishment of certain types of evil-doers. 

There is no sort of lawlessness that is so subversive 
of permanent law and order through governmental agen- 

1 By “A. Texan.” Survey. 48 : 251. May 13, 1922. 


KU KLUX KLAN 


103 


cies as that which declares to the public that government 
has broken down and that a secret agency must take its 
place. 

As a fomenter of private hatreds; as a feeder of the 
flames of religious prejudice; as a breeder of suspicion 
between friends and neighbors; as a creator of dangerous 
secret political corruption; as a destroyer of community 
solidarity; as a fomenter of strife and conflict at a time 
when our national life is at stake, the Ku Klux Klan is 
a menace so terrible that I cannot conceive how Mr. 
Devine should even damn it with faint praise. 

Our people are torn with dissension—and men are 
doubting their neighbors. The Klan has sowed dragon’s 
teeth—and monsters are already springing up where they 
sowed. The social order is at the edge of chaos, and 
“philanthropic doubts” have had added the apple of dis¬ 
cord. If any good citizenship has turned to the Klan for 
the administration of law to punish offenders, that very 
citizenship has belied their allegiance to a government 
of order. They practically say that they have failed to 
work openly in behalf of honest and fearless administra¬ 
tion of the law, but will secretly condone and join with 
a lawless assumption of what can only be a governmental 
function. This latter is anarchy. Regardless of the bad¬ 
ness of evil-doers, it is anarchy. 

The moment a secret order so feels its power that it 
can mete out punishment to an actual evil-doer, it is right 
on the edge of settling private grudges and from that to 
a very tearing down of all public and private safety. 

Read of the Camorra, my friends. If you were satu¬ 
rated with the local atmosphere as I have been ever since 
this evil thing was born in an ignorant imagination you 
would feel the same sorrowful dread. You can’t know 
what it is to sit with your family in your home down 
below the dam and know that there is many a sign that 
the dam may break. Still, in that event you could move 
the family to higher ground. But with us—where would 


104 


THE REFERENCE SHELF 


we go? To Russia, where Ku Klux pogroms were anti- 
Jewish? To contemplate the inquisition of Spain against 
the Protestants as an example of what anti-Catholicism 
might aim at here? 


KICK. 1 

( By flattering the native-born Protestant Gentile white 
American, by depicting the United States as secretly en¬ 
dangered by Jews, Roman Catholics, negroes and for¬ 
eign-born American citizens, a fair proportion of simple 
jungle-minded folk, all over the country, have been in¬ 
duced to take oaths of red-blooded Americanism.) The 
Kleagles, or salesmen, become solemnly “naturalized” in 
Mr. Simmons’s Invisible Empire. They pledge him loyalty 
of a kind that no president gets even from postmasters, 
and they go through “a blasphemous and sacriligious 
mockery of the holy rite of baptism”—all with a view to 
their going out for recruits on the basis of a 40 per cent 
commission. 

What prepared the United States for this eruption of 
primitive supersition? Mr. Lusk and Mr. Stevenson and 
their secret paid spies and secret volunteer agents are in 
part entitled to the credit. This is plainly an outcropping 
in final idiocy of the many tyrannical manifestations with 
which this country has been afflicted since the president 
yielded completely to illiberalism and gave Burleson and 
Palmer carte blanche. It is not so many months since 
the National Security League paved the way for the 
Ku Klux Klan. In the activities of that and similar or¬ 
ganizations, in the intolerances of the American Legion, 
in the attacks on civil liberty that culminated in such 
events as the Albany expulsions, the more jungle-minded 
Americans have naturally been led to believe that 100 per 
cent Americanism really calls for an “invisible empire” 
on the lines of imperial wizardry. 

1 New Republic. 28 : 88-9. September 21, 1921. 

BD - 23 . 3 . 


ICU KLUX KLAN 


105 


Feeble-minded it is, rather than evil-minded; but it is 
impossible for so much feebleness to become organized 
without becoming a danger to the people outside the In¬ 
visible Empire. Among primitive intelligences every¬ 
where, whether in New Jersey or in the Melanesian 
Islands, secret societies are likely to be alluring. . . 
In every American community people ought to know the 
terrorizers. These born terrorizers do not need to be 
terrorized in turn. But they do need to be insulated by 
those who have no religious bigotry, no race hatred, no 
superstition and no fear. 















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